fook__.M£i__ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



\ 



THE 



Story of South Africa 



WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR 



YOUNG PEOPLE 



INCLUDING the First Settlement by the Dutch; 

Full Descriptions of the Native Tribes ; The 
Struggles with the English for Supremacy; The 
Great Treks; Gold Mining and Diamond Mining; 
Growth of the Transvaal; and the War Between 
the British and the Boers. 





With Pen Pictures of the Great Leaders 



WHO HAVE MADE SOUTH AFRICA FAMOUS 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 



BY R. C. V. MEYERS 

Author of "The Colonel's Christmas Morning" and other well known stories 



Library of Congress 

Two Copies Received 
NOV 19 1900 

Copyright entry 

no &A<> fc'VV 

SECOND COPY 

Delivered to 



Copyright 1900 
by 

C. V. MEYERS 



\ 



PRBFMCB. 



It has seemed a good plan to the author to think of the Story of 
South Africa for the young. Not that there should be a special line of 
writing adapted to the young which shall fail to interest those of larger 
growth. Only, that the readers who are on the right side of time, and 
not on its declining slope, demand, and rightfully demand, a style of 
writing which should combine all the elements of good sense without 
the verbose manner so often used in detailing facts which are supposed 
to appeal to the older class of readers. 

A history need not be dry, or a mere stupid chronology ; the true 
history is a narrative of facts so arranged and told that it appears a 
part of the every day life we all live, young and old alike. The author 
believes that he has hit the happy medium where the detailing of events 
is chronicled in a fashion apart from the reports in newspapers which are 
often so condensed as to be mere mention of data. With the material 
at hand he has endeavored to speak about South Africa from the time 
of its first occupancy by the Dutch from Holland, down to the time when 
those Hollanders became Africanders, or Boers, fighting with the Eng- 
lish for what they considered their rights and privileges, and more espec- 
ially for that form of independence which they had striven for from the 
first — the independence of the republic. The early struggles of the 
people are depicted, their overcoming of natural obstacles, their res- 
cuing of the land from wild barrenness and turning it into territory that 
in the first place sheltered and nourished their flocks and herds, and after- 

5 



6 PREFACE. 

ward developed into great towns and cities, and through the finding of 
gold and precious stones into sources of inestimable wealth. The 
Story of South Africa largely does with Paul Kruger, having him in 
mind from the time when as a small boy he joined the great trek, driving 
his father's cattle away into the wilderness of the interior of the land 
when the English possessed themselves of the territory already settled 
by the immigrants, through all the troubled times down to the present 
day when he stands a rock of defiance and with his small band of African- 
ders opposes the vast army of the most civilized country in the world. 
The events leading up to the war are sketched, the men prominent in 
those events are brought forward, the bravery of both Boer and Britain 
dwelt upon, and all the facts of place and battle detailed at considerable 
length. A story thus written becomes history so far as its facts are con- 
cerned, and interesting reading at the same time. 

In these days when old and young alike have so much to do, it has 
seemed well to use a light touch in many instances where a heavy hand 
might only deter the reader from looking further into a book concerned 
in the happenings of a country about which so little has been known 
until the war has gradually made us acquainted with a form of civiliza- 
tion which the English even now consider savage or childish. The re- 
ligious side of the Boer accounts for much that has made him to be 
called "childish," while his stubborn resistance places him among the 
strong nationalities of the world. 

The author's earnest wish is that his book carries conviction with 
it, for his facts are verified and strictly true, while his recital of those facts 
is done in a form which he believes will interest the young, while it will 
equally appeal to older readers. With this hope and belief, the book is 
placed in your hands. 



CHAPTER I. 

First European settlement by Portuguese — Coming of the Dutch — Arrival of French 
Huguenots — Africander type — Trek Boers — Colonel Gordon — English eyes on 
the Cape — Holland invaded by French — Arrival of British fleet — Rumors of 
coming of French to the Cape — British protection refused — Threat of British — 
"Father" Sluysken — Eve of first British attack. 



CHAPTER II. 

Conflict of authority — British blockade Table Bay — Terms offered by British — Sur- 
render of Cape Colony to British — Restored to Dutch — Ceded to Great Britain — 
Slavery suppressed — Dissatisfaction of Boers — The "Great Trek" — Settlement 
in Orange Free State— Paul Kruger an immigrant — Zulu warfare — Matabele tribe 
— Transvaal Republic — Natalia Republic — Pietermaritzburg. 



CHAPTER III. 

Pretorius — Attack by British on Natalia — Natalia, a British possession — Second Trek 
— Basutos — Doctor Philip — Giving back to British rule of Orange River sover- 
eignty — Transvaal Republic — British give up Orange River country — Secheli — 
Doctor Livingstone — Slavery called "apprenticeship" — Third contact between 
Boer and Britain-r-Discovery of diamonds — Rush to the Cape — 'Claimants to the 
diamond lands — British courts award the lands to Orange Free State — British 
flag over the territory before courts decide — Money paid to Orange Free State to 
relinquish claim. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Third contact of Africander and Briton — Civil war growing out of presidential 
election — Schoeman opposed to Pretorius — Kruger to drive out Schoeman — Sto- 
ry of Kruger — Otawayo — Zulu warfare — Transvaal annexed by British — Sir 
Bartle Frere — Sir Gaunt Wolseley — Mass meeting of Boers — Laing's Nek — Ma- 
juba Hill — Transvaal restored to Africanders and Kruger elected president. 



CHAPTER V. 

British seize Bechuanaland— Lo Bengula— Gold discovered — Rush of speculators- 
Diamonds discovered — Kimberley diamond fields — The Rand gold mines-^Cecil 
Rhodes premier— British plan to take Swaziland — Marquis of Ripon and Mr. 
Chamberlain — Rate war— President Kruger's stand in the matter — Complaints of 
Uitlanders against the republic. 



8 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Plans for Uitlander uprising — Criticisms of President Kruger — Tales at Pretoria of 
proposed uprising — Restlessness of Boers — Preparations to resist raid — Mrs. 
Kruger — Jameson's raid — Jameson defeated and.made prisoner — Condition ol 
Johannesburg — Criticism of raid. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Cecil Rhodes and his schemes — Africanders determined on independence — Kruger 
re-elected president— Petition of Uitlanders — Complaints against Transvaal gov- 
ernment — Note of British government — Reply of South African government — 
Chamberlain's famous speech — Shipment of English troops to South Africa — ■ 
Africanders prepare for hostilities. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

October, 1899 — Document of South African Government — Reward Offered for Cecil 
Rhodes — Description of Volksraad — Orange Free State aroused — Proclamation 
of President Stein — "Oorlog" — War! — The forces of Great Britain — Strength of 
Africanders — News of Capture of two English regiments — Surprise in London — 
Besieging newspaper offices and War Office for news — War realized as being a 
real thing. 



CHAPTER IX. 

General Buller embarks for Cape Town — Arrival at Table Bay — Stormburg — The 
story of the armored train — Manning of the train — The push to Frere — The train 
attacked and destroyed — Prisoners of war — Boer treatment of prisoners — First 
battle of the war — Boer's encampment — "I will wait" — Night in the prisoners' 
hut — The evening hymn of the Boers. 



CHAPTER X. 

Reports from seat of war — Ladysmith and Colenso — Censorship of newspapers — 
Shelling of Mafeking— Fitting out of the "Maine" by women — Prisoners of war 
on the way to Pretoria — Story of Cecil Rhodes and the diamond operator — Pris- 
oners reach Pretoria — "On to Kimberley" — Defeat of Gatacre at Stormburg — 
Escape of newspaper correspondent, his hardships and gaining of his liberty. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Check of General Methuen — Magersfontein — The queen's grief — Hospitals at Pieter- 
maritzburg — Strength of British force — Christmas Day in camp — New year opens 
well for English — British demonstration before Colenso — Force for relief of 
Ladysmith — Confidence in General Buller — Capture of Potgieter's Ferry — Arri- 
val of General Buller— Operations for relief of Ladysmith— To Springfield. 



CONTENTS. 



9 



^ CHAPTER XII. 

Lord Buller's~plan tcTstorm Spion Kop— Preparing to cross the Tugela— Pontoon 
'bridges — Lord Dundonald— Capture of Boers — English kind to their prisoners — 
The dying Boer boy— J Check of Sir Redvers Buller — Boer force— English force — 
English killed and wounded— Battle of Spion Kop— Repulse of English— Com- 
ments in London., 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Censorship of news — English newspaper opinions — Dissatisfaction of army — General 
Buller encourages the men — Church in camp — A poor sermon — Boer talk of 
Boers — Reinforcements for Buller — Move to be made — Plan of attack. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Troops moving — Boer gunning — "Long Tom" — In Ladysmith — Prices of commo- 
dities and things used for food — Hopes set on Buller — Orders to retire — Opinions 
as to defense and assault — Another trial — Another hope — Hussar Hill — Orders 
for a general advance — A gain — Americans with the troops — Monte Cristo in the 
possession of the English — Ladysmith eight miles away. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Ladysmith eight miles away — Difficulties in reaching the town — Newspaper criticisms 
— Buller's plan and works — Taking of Colenso — Boers in retreat — Characteris- 
tics of Buller — "On to Ladysmith" — Meeting the Boers — Splendid fighting of 
English and Boers — Losses of English — Suffering of English wounded — Buller' s 
change of plan — Soldiers disappointed — Soldiers encouraged — The last attempt 
to save Ladysmith. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Majuba Day — Firing at dawn — Preparations— Dundonald — Description of firing— 
— The battle — Capture of Barton's Hill — Railway Hill — In front of fire of Maus- 
ers — English in possession of Railway Hill — Innis Killing Hill — Battle of Pie- 
ter's won — Would capture of Ladysmith end the war? — Bravery of Boers — 
Would fight "till the last man" — English in possession — Victory! 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Preparations — The Ladysmith balloon — "Buller is coming" — Ladysmith six miles 
away — "Dundonald, on!" — The Ladysmith picket — Ladysmith relieved — Condi- 
tion of garrison — Pepworth's Hill — Bulwana Hill — Kimberley — Rhodes' regi- 
ment — General Roberts — Relief of Kimberley — Hatred of Rhodes — Letter from 
envoy extraordinary of Orange Free State — Retreat of Cronje — Colesberg — Ro- 
berts pushing on — Bloemfontein entered. 



10 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

Kitchener — Gatacre — Mafeking holding out — Capture of Cronje — Death of Joubert— 
Estimate of his character — March towards Pretoria — Baden-Powell relieved at 
Mafeking — Character of Baden-Powell — Annexation of Orange Free State — 
Flight of President Kruger — Johannesburg entered — Fight for Pretoria — En- 
trance of Pretoria — Mortality of British army — Losses of Boers. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

General Roberts thinks the war nearly over — Troops dismissed — Troops to go to 
China in the new war — Pacification of the Transvaal — Kruger with $25,000,000 
gold — Boers consider Free State still free — Fighting — Despatches and reports — 
Kruger will have peace only on his own terms — Boer peace envoys — Their ad- 
dress to the people of the United States — Suffering in British army — Flight of 
Kruger. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Was the war over? — Interview with President Kruger — "Fight to the bitter end" — 
Hospital scandals — Trouble with China — The "Boxers" — The Boers not giving 
up — Dissatisfaction of England over the war — "The war is not over," said Kru- 
ger — British losses in men — Cost* in money — Coming to agreement — Terms — 
The end in sight. 



Iiigb ©i IIIuSfc!>afei®Fig. 



LOBENGULA, KING OF THE MATABELES Frontispiece 

VASCO DA GAMA DISCOVERING CAPE OF GOOD HOPE 19 

THE GREAT TREK 38 

MATABELE WAR: DEFENDING A LAAGER. (R. Caton Woodville.) . 55 

PRESIDENT KRUGER. GENERAL JOUBERT 62 

TREKKING HOME: LAST OF THE COMMANDO 71 

DEFENDING RORKE'S DRIFT: BATTLE OF LAING'S NEK 78 

BATTLE OF MAJUBA HILL. (Drawn by R. Caton Woodville.) 95 

KIMBERLEY DIAMOND MINES 102 

A NOVEL FRYING PAN in 

THREE GENERATIONS OF BOERS "8 

THE IMPERIAL YEOMAN'S LAST RIDE. (R. Caton Woodville.) 135 

BOERS ATTACKED BY BRITISH CAVALRY 142 

EXODUS OF BRITISH SUBJECTS. (Wal Paget.) 151 

A FIELD BATTERY FORDING A RIVER IN FLOOD 158 

A DIFFICULT RECONNOISANCE; NEAR COLESBURG 175 

BREAD FOR SOLDIERS: A FIELD BAKERY 182 

COLONIAL TROOPS SURPRISE BOERS. (Dinner left cooking on the 

stove) 19 1 

IN THE TRENCHES AT MAFEKING 198 

CLEARING THE KOPJES .. 215 

"TO ARMS! THE BRITISH ARE COMING!" 222 

HAULING GUNS UP COLE'S KOP 231 

FORWARD TO PRETORIA! HORSE ARTILLERY OF FRENCH'S 

DIVISION .. 238 

THE ATTACK ON SPION KOP 255 

BULLER'S TRANSPORT WAGONS 262 

LOSS OF BRITISH GUNS: TUGELA RIVER 271 

"FIX BAYONETS!"— IN THE TRENCHES AT LADYSMITH 278 

From Sketch by special artist, Mr. Melton Prior. 

zi 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

FIELD MARSHAL LORD ROBERTS: GEN. SIR REDVERS H. BUL- 

LER _. 259 

SALUTING FIRST WOUNDED CARRIED FROM FIELD 302 

(A traditional custom of the British Army.) 

ESCAPING BOERS TO MEET BABOONS 311 

BIVOUAC NEAR COLESBURG 3^ 

BATTLE OF CAESAR'S CAMP. (Melton Prior.) 335 

GENERAL FRENCH MEETING CECIL RHODES. (Villiers.) 342 

(Sanatorium Hotel, Kimberley, on the Evening of "Relief.") 

RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY: ARRIVAL OF THE MUTTON 351 

LORD ROBERTS AND STAFF STARTING FOR A RECONNOIS- 

SANCE 362 

GUARDS CLEARING THE SUBURBS OF JOHANNESBURG 371 



Perhaps it is as well, before going into the story of South Africa, to 
speak aoout the place, its natural conditions, its resources, and the like, 
which will help to a clearer understanding of the tale of the Africanders 
who came to a wild country of blacks and made of it a republican land 
which has always attracted the attention of Great Britain. 

Nature has divided that part of Africa lying south of the Bambesi 
River into three regions. A strip of low lying land skirts the Indian 
Ocean all the way from Cape Town to Natal, Delagoa Bay and northeast 
to the mouth of the Bambesi. Between the principal port of Natal, 
Durban, and Cape Town this strip of land is very narrow ; in some places 
the hills come down almost to the sea. To the northeast of Durban the 
plains become wider. This low lying land is swampy, and from Durban 
northward the climate is malarious, as the English soldiers engaged in 
the war with the South African Republic only too unhappily discovered. 

The second region is higher, but the surface is much broken, reach- 
ing from Cape Town to the Bambesi Valley, something like 1600 miles. 
The Quathlamba Mountains are here and rise to a great height. 

Beyond the mountains, to the west and north, is the third natural 
division, a great table land rising from three to five thousand feet above 
the sea level. 

The coast of Africa is poor in harbors. There is no port between 
Cape Town and Durban, while from Durban to the Bambesi there are 
only two good ports — Delagoa Bay and Beira. Except Saldanha Bay, 

x 3 



i 4 THE STORY OF 

which is twenty miles north of Cape Town, the western coast has no 
harbor for a thousand miles. 

The temperature in South Africa is lower than might be supposed. 
This is because there is more water than dry land in the southern hemi- 
sphere. The mean temperature in South Africa proper is seventy de- 
grees in January and eighty in July, though there are days of exceptional 
moist tropical heat. 

In most parts of the country the climate is dry. Around Cape 
Colony winter and summer are well defined, though in the rest of South 
Africa there is a wet season for five months when the heat is intense, 
while the rest of the year is the dry season, when the air is cooler. In 
the parts where the rain fall is heaviest the moisture quickly disappears, 
by evaporation and absorption, and the surface remains parched till the 
next wet season, consequently the air is generally dry and clear and cool. 

The rivers are not rivers during the greater part of the year. In 
the dry season they are without water altogether, or consist of a suc- 
cession of small pools hardly enough water being in them to supply the 
cattle with drink. And when they are rivers, as rivers are known, they 
are most of the time so deep and wide that they can neither be forded nor 
navigated, the rains which continue for hours and days converting them 
into great torrents. 

The purity of the air and its dryness makes many parts of South 
Africa suitable for persons with chest diseases, and it was here that Cecil 
Rhodes came when delicate in health, and was cured so effectually that 
ever since he has been a trouble to the Africanders. 

When it was first explored, South Africa was filled with wild ani- 
mals — lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, the rhinoceros, the hippo- 
potamus, thirty-one species of the antelope, zebra, quagga, buffalo and 
other wild creatures. The Dutch settlers struggled against these ani- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 15 

mals and after many dangers nearly exterminated them in some sections, 
till now there are only two regions where big game can be found. 

Snakes of all kinds used to infest the country, poisonous and veno- 
mous, but they have nearly disappeared in the places where the white 
man has come. 

There are beautiful flowers there, of a topical kind, though most of 
the regions have few blooms on account of the dryness of the surface of 
the ground. In general, South Africa is bare of forests, only a few 
existing and these are carefully guarded by the Forest Department. 
The prickly pear, however, is there, and men and cattle have much dif- 
ficulty with its sharp thorns. A large part of the prickly pear region 
is used for ostrich farming. 

To the east where there is much rainfall there are more trees and 
less thorny. All around Kimberley, where there were once many woods, 
the trees have nearly all been cut down for fuel and to make props for 
the diamond mines. The people have planted the Australian gum tree 
in some places, besides the eucalyptus and the oak, and they are grow- 
ing well and will alter the climate for the better. 

Cape Colony is the largest political division of South Africa. It 
contains about 292,000 square miles, and the population, white and 
native, is over 2,000,000 — the whites being about 400,000. Only a 
small division of it is suitable for farming, portions of it being too dry 
and barren for stock raising. Under the summer rains the prickly 
shrubs sprout and the sprouts are good eating for goats and sheep. To- 
wards Kimberley and Mafeking the country is better watered and graz- 
ing animals find grass and nutritious shrubs. The year 1899 found 
South Africa with 3,000 miles of railway and nearly 7,000 miles of tele- 
graph. In Cape Colony there were nearly twenty-five hundred vessels 
of all sorts. The foreign commerce is large, the importations of one 
year being more that eighty millions of dollars, while the exports, which 



16 THE STORY OF 

included a great proportion of gold and diamonds from Kimberly, were 
close on to a hundred and twenty-five millions. 

Natal has greater natural advantages than any other part of South 
Africa. It lies on the seaward slope of the Quathlamba Mountains, and 
its scenery is very beautiful. It is well watered by never ending streams 
that are fed by the snows and springs of the mountains. While the 
higher places toward the west are bare of shrubbery, there is always 
abundance of grass lower down, and toward the coast there is wood in 
plenty. The climate is a great deal warmer than in Cape Golony, in 
places the heat is intense. This heat is caused by the Mozambique 
channel which brings a warm stream of water from the hot regions of 
the Indian ocean, and this acts on the climate of Natal as the gulf stream 
acts on the climate of North and South Carolina and Georgia. The 
principal crops are sugar, coffee, indigo, arrowroot, ginger, tobacco, 
rice, pepper, cotton and tea. The coal fields are large. The population 
amounts to 828,500, tHe whites being 61,000. 

The Orange Free State is between four and five thousand feet above 
the sea, and is 48,000 miles in area. It is mostly level, though there are 
mountains more than 6,000 feet high. There are few trees, though cat- 
tle and flocks find grazing nine months out of twelve. The air is fine 
and bracing. Occasionally there are violent thunder storms, with hail 
stones large enough to kill the smaller animals, and sometimes men. 
The valley of the Caledon river, to the southeast, is one of the best corn 
growing parts of Africa. The grazing farms are very large, but require 
the care of only a few men, so the population does not increase very rap- 
idly. The Orange. Free State, which is about the size of the State of 
New York, has only about 80,000 white people in it, and 130,000 natives. 
A railway built by the Cape Colony government connects Bloemfontein, 
the capital, with Cape Colony, Natal and Pretoria, which is the capital 
of the South African Republic. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



17 



The South African Republic, usually called the Transvaal, has an 
area of about a hundred and twenty thousand square miles. The white 
population, of 345,397, is mostly centered about the Witwatersrand 
mining district. The natives number about 700,000. All the Trans- 
vaal belongs to the interior, except a strip of low land on the eastern 
and northern borders, where there is much malaria. Like the Orange 
Free State the Transvaal is principally grazing country, there being but 
few trees. The winters are very cold, and the scorching sun of summer 
quickly dries up the moisture and bakes the soil, stunting and yellowing 
the grass most of the year. The Transvaal up to a few years ago had 
little to attract strangers. But in 1884 gold was discovered, and it has 
since been known as probably the richest gold country in the world. 
Later on, 1897, diamonds were discovered. The output of gold in 1898 
was $69,154,000, and of diamonds, $212,812.01. The total output of 
gold since gold was first discovered there amounts to more than $300,- 
000,000, with ten times that amount in sight, according to experts. 
The imports of one year are estimated at $107,575,000. 

Griqua West, a British possession bordering on Cape Colony and 
the Free State, is chiefly important because of the Kimberley diamond 
mines. These mines were opened in 1869. They have given $350,000,- 
000 worth of diamonds in their rough state, with double that amount 
after cutting. 

Bechuanaland, the British protectorate, is north of Cape Colony 
and Griqualand and to the west of the Transvaal. In area it is a little 
over 200,000 square miles, the population, mostly natives, being 200,- 
000. A railway and telegraph connect it with Cape Colony and 
Rhodesia. 

Rhodesia includes what was formerly British South Africa and a 
part of that known as British East Africa. It contains about 750,000 
square miles, or about one-fourth of the area of the United States with- 



i8 



THE STORY OF 



out counting Alaska. There are said to be between one and two mil- 
lion people there and only about 6000 whites. It is a country new to 
civilization, so no actual statement can be made as to its commerce. 

It is perhaps well to have this statement of South Africa, though it 
may appear dry and uninteresting. 

TH 4tory of South Africa has more interest in it, and will now be 

tokL 



CHAPTER I. 

First European settlement by Portuguese— Coming of the Dutch—Arrival of French 
Huguenots — Africander type — Trek Boers — Colonel Gordon — English eyes on 
the Cape— Holland invaded by French— Arrival of British fleet— Rumors of 
coming of French to the Cape — British protection refused — Threat of British — 
"Father" Sluysken— Eve of first British attack. 

HE first Europeans to visit South Africa were the Portu- 
guese. Portuguese commerce lay west of Madagascar, 
so they did not put in at Table Bay which might have 
been made a port of supply in the southeastern portion 
of Africa. But when the Dutch took the trade from the 
Portuguese, that southeastern part became very important. Their sea 
road going east was south of Madagascar so that in the long voyage 
from Holland to Batavia it was necessary that they should have a port 
of supply at the turning point. In this way they would stop at Table 
Bay for fresh water, fish, and for barter with the natives. 

It was in 1650 that the Dutch East India Company, hearing reports 
of the resources of Table Bay, decided to establish there a station. On 
the 24th of December, 1651, it being Sunday, an expedition set out. 
After a voyage of a hundred and four days the emigrants first saw the 
home that was to be theirs thereafter. The Dutch East India Com- 
pany had sent Jan Van Reibeek as first officer of the expedition. He 
and three skippers inspected Table Valley and picked out as a site for a 
fort the ground a little in the rear of where the post office of Cape Town 

21 



i 




22 



THE STORY OF 



now stands. Here the fort was built. In it were dwellings and bar- 
racks. Around the fort were walled enclosures, or Kraals, for cattle, 
besides workshops and tents for the settlers. This was the first Euro- 
pean settlement in South Africa. 

In 1658 the colonists introduced slave labor, compelling the West 
African negroes to work for them. To these slaves the Dutch East 
India Company added Malay convicts from Java and other portions of 
its East Indian territories. Some of these Malays took wives among 
the native African slave women and their children were the beginning 
of the dark people which began to form the population of Cape Town 
and its nearby regions. In 1689 nearly four hundred French Hugue- 
nots came from Holland and joined the colonists at the Cape. They 
were refined, energetic people, and many of the colonial families of South 
Africa are descended from them. The Huguenots loved their language 
and their Protestant faith, but the company forbade the use of French 
in religious services and in all official writings, so by the middle of the 
eighteenth century the Huguenots were blended with the Dutch colon- 
ists in language as well as in religion and politics. Many German Luth- 
erans having emigrated to the Cape, at last, in 1780, the company sanc- 
tioned a church of that persuasion. 

The Africander type of people began to appear when the settlers 
moved by degrees from the coast to the interior parts of the country. 

The Dutch and Germans were of the humbler classes, they were 
away from home, communication with Europe was difficult, and they 
lost feeling for the places of their birth. The Hueguenots had no home 
country — France had banished them and Holland did not own them. 
In this way the whites who went into the interior of Africa had no bond 
between themselves and Europe, they were a new people whose lot in 
life lay in Africa. They became stockmen and hunters and protected 
themselves against lions and leopards and the savage Bushmen who 



SOUTH AFRICA. 23 

resented an invasion of their country. They were isolated and wild, 
their children grew up untaught, their wives lost the cleanly habits of 
the Dutch and French, the men themselves neglected the elegances of 
life, but retained their religious enthusiasm, and a great love of personal 
freedom which the company could not entirely control. The company 
might appoint magistrates and assessors, but they could not govern the 
wandering stockmen, who were called Trek Boers, because they "trek- 
ked" from one place to another, and who formed themselves into com- 
panies of fighters in order to disperse and destroy the savage Bushmen. 
The colonists never agreed with the governor and council appointed by 
the. Dutch East India Company, so the governor was not responsible 
for the people. 

In 1779 the colonists sent representatives to Holland to demand a 
share in the government of the colony, which action was due to wrong 
they had suffered under the company and to a spirit of independence 
such as led the British colonists in North America to throw off the con- 
trol of the old country. Two commissioners were sent from Holland 
to investigate the state of affairs at Cape Colony. The relief proposed 
was not sufficient, especially to those in the more distant settlements. 

In 1795 the people in the interior rose against the government, 
though they still insisted that they served Holland. The magistrates 
appointed by the government were set aside and little republics were 
established. The government might have put down these rebellious 
uprisings by cutting off food supplies, but other events were claiming 
the attention of the government, and these were events which drew 
South Africa into European politics and led to the struggle between the 
Boer and the Briton — a struggle which, renewed and suppressed time 
and again, has been going on for more than a hundred years. 

At this time, 1795, the Boer population in South Africa was about 
1 7,000. The popular language was not that of Holland ; the large num- 



24 



THE STORY OF- 



ber of foreigners, the necessity of speaking to the slaves and native Hot- 
tentots had tended to destroy the best forms of the language, and made 
a peculiar dialect. The people had good sense and manly energy. 
They were intensely religious, but so far from bigotry that beside the 
Dutch Reformed Church — in a way the national church— Lutheran and 
Moravian congregations were recognized. 

Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon was commander of the regular mili- 
tary forces in the Cape Colony. These forces, compared with the pres- 
ent vast numbers that go to constitute an army, were unimportant. 
There was a regiment of infantry made up of twenty-five' officers and 
five hundred and forty-six privates; an artillery corps of twenty-seven 
officers and four hundred and three rank and file; fifty-seven men sta- 
tioned at the regimental depots of Meuron and Wurttemburg, and a 
corps of mountaineer soldiers, called pandours, of about two hundred 
men. It is well to remember that at this time the colonists were not 
entirely in sympathy with the revolt of the interior settlers. On the 
coast many were in accord with the Dutch East India Company, while 
all agreed that they were loyal to Holland. The revolutionists in the 
interior had dismissed the magistrates appointed by the company and 
had tried to establish little republics which were sympathized with by 
many on the coast though they were condemned on principle. 

The military also were divided on the point of agreement with 
those in the interior. Of the infantry the officers sympathized with 
what was called the Orange party (the beginners of the Orange Free 
State), but the privates were from nearly every country in the north of 
Europe and were for the party or nation from whom they could get the 
best pay. The artillery corps, however, was made up of Netherlanders, 
with a few French and Germans. They were attached to the mother 
country and believed in all that she did. A large number, though, sym- 
pathized with the republic movement in France where the king and 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



25 



queen had been brought to the guillotine, and would rather have formed 
an alliance with France that had been roused by ill treatment than with 
England that had let North America take care of itself and was adding 
constantly to its possessions. 

Weakened by this division of sentiment, the Colony presented an 
open door to any power that chose to take a point of so much import- 
ance as an ocean thorougfare between Europe and the East. 

The English government, on the eve of war with France, soon saw 
the value of the Cape Colony and fearful of France taking possession of 
it, determined to make it a part of British territory, for the occupancy 
of the Cape by the French would make England's route to India a dif- 
ficulty. 

As early as 1793 negotiations were opened between Britain and the 
Dutch authorities concerning the strengthening of the garrison at the 
Cape by British troops from St. Helena. While this was going on, 
events were happening that occasioned ill feeling between the Dutch 
and English, although they were allied against the French. Being 
harassed by dissatisfaction among their own people, the Dutch made 
appeals to the British government for aid in men and money. The 
answer of the English authorities was that their troops were doing nearly 
all of the defence of the Netherlands, and that the other government was 
not doing all it could to raise men and money at home. 

In making this answer the British acted as though blind to the con- 
dition of the Dutch government. For the French had an army of inva- 
sion and one after another the Dutch strongholds were falling before 
the French General Pichegru. Friesland was threatening to make a 
separate peace with France if Holland did not come with assistance. 

The patriotic Dutch refused hospitals for the wounded British sol- 
diers. Then the British offered that if the Dutch government would 
furnish five hundred to a thousand troops for the better protection of 



26 



THE STORY OF 



Cape Colony the English East India Company would transport them 
to Africa free of charge. The Dutch could not furnish the men, so the 
offer was not carried into effect. 

In the meantime, as was expressed by Friesland, the Dutch people 
were thinking of changing sides in the war and going over to the French. 
A letter was sent to the Governor of Cape Colony by the Dutch East 
India Company informing the colonists that Holland might soon ally 
with France, for that matters at home were in a bad condition, the 
French armies were advancing and already occupied a part of the coun- 
try and that it would be necessary to be careful so as not to be surprised 
by another power — the letter evidently referring to England. Later re- 
ports said that the French were besieging Breda and threatening every- 
thing. 

The next report was calculated to alarm the colonists to a high 
degree. On the nth of June, 1795, messengers arrived with the news 
that several unknown ships were beating into False Bay, then that the 
ships had cast anchor and that Captain Dekker of the frigate Medenblik 
had sent a boat to one of the ships directing the lieutenant in charge to 
wave a flag if all were friendly and that no such signal had been made 
and the boat had not come back. 

The Governor called the council together. After conference, sig- 
nals of danger were made,' summoning the burghers of the country dis- 
tricts to Cape Town. 

Lieutenant Colonel De Lille was ordered to go to Simonstown with 
two hundred infantry and a hundred gunners to strengthen the garrison 
there. At half past twelve on the morning of the 12th, a letter came 
from Simonstown stating that Captain Decker's boat had returned with 
a Mr. Ross who had letters for the head of the Cape government from 
Sir George Keith Elphinstone, the English Admiral, and Major General 
James Henry Craig. Mr. Ross came to Cape Town. The letters were 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



27 



from the English East India Company to the Governor of the colony. 
They were merely complimentary letters. 

And the facts which accounted for the British naval and military 
force in African waters were unknown to the colonists. But the demo- 
cratic party in Holland had receeived the French, the government was 
remodelled. The British government, alarmed for their great posses- 
sions in India, and realizing that they must keep the French from seiz- 
ing the Cape, which was the station of value on the route to India, sent 
in all haste this expedition to occupy, peacefully or otherwise, the castle 
and harbor of Cape Town. The Commissioner instructed the residents 
of Simonstown to permit the English to take provisions, but to allow no 
armed men to come ashore. Burghers and gunners watched the road 
to Simonstown. 

But on the 14th of June, Mr. Ross handed to Commissioner Sluys- 
ken a communication from the Prince of Orange, late Stadtholder of the 
Netherlands, and supposed by the colonists to be still in power, though 
he had been deposed. 

The Prince ordered the Commissioner to admit the troops of the 
King of England into the forts and colony and the British ships of war 
into the ports, as they had come to protect the colony against the 
French. A deputation from the Admiral also presented a letter to the 
Commissioner informing him that the severe winter in Europe had 
frozen the rivers so hard that the French troops had crossed the ice into 
various parts of Holland, driven the British into Germany and com- 
pelled the Dutch troops to surrender, while in a few days the whole of 
Holland would be in the possession of the French. But, the letter went 
on to say, Britain and her allies were about to enter the field with over-, 
whelming force and were confident of driving the French out of Hol- 
land. The letter said nothing about the friendly reception of the French 
by the democratic party in Holland. The impression conveyed was 



28 



THE STORY OF 



that the Prince of Orange, their dear Stadtholder of the Netherlands, 
was still their Prince, though he was a temporary fugitive in England 
which would reinstate him, and that loyalty to the Prince makes it im- 
perative for the Commissioner of Cape Colony to open the ports and the 
forts to the friendly ocupation of the British, 

The council decided that the Prince being a fugitive, his communi- 
cation had no official force. They were loyal to their Stadtholder, but 
there was nothing to guide them but these armed visitors who wished 
to occupy their harbors and strongholds. 

Then General Craig met the Commissioner and council, who were 
wise and diplomatic. He stated that the ships and troops had been 
sent by the British King to defend the colony against the French, or any 
other power, and that the British occupancy would last only until the 
Holland government was restored. No changes were to be made in 
the laws in Cape Town, no new taxes levied, and that the colony's troops 
would be paid by England, on condition that they swear allegiance to 
the English King, which oath of allegiance was to last only so long as 
the British occupied the colony. The council declined all this, declar- 
ing that they would protect the colony with their own forces against all 
comers. 

Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig responded to this by re- 
quiring the inhabitants of the country to accept his Britannic Majesty's 
protection, as it was certain the French would seize the colonies belong- 
ing to Holland. Three days later an address was published in Dutch 
and German renewing the offers made, and informing the people that 
if the French gained possession of the colony there would be anarchy, 
the guillotine, and insurrection of the blacks, the destruction of trade, 
money and the necessaries of life. On the other hand, English occu- 
pancy meant safety, a free market for all the products of the land and at 
best prices, while it would release their trade from the heavy taxes im- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



29 



posed by the Dutch East India Company, and secure better pay for such 
of the colonial troops that might choose to enter the British military 
service. 

The council was angry at this appeal to the people over their heads 
and notified the British authorities that further communication on the 
subject of British occupancy was not desired. All the same, on the 
26th of June, the Admiral and the General sent the colonial authorities 
another letter, repeating their former statements that Holland had been 
absorbed by France ; that if left to itself the Cape Colony would be ab- 
sorbed in the same manner, adding, almost as a threat, that his 
Britannic Majesty would not allow it to fall into the hands of his 
enemies. 

The council's anger turned into indignation. They were stout, 
honest men and their manliness was called into question when they 
could sit tamely down and allow a usurping power not only to threaten 
them, but to try and make traitors of their very soldiers by offering them 
more money for their services than the home government could afford 
to give them. 

This latest letter became known to the people and they rose to the 
occasion. They had redeemed this land by hardship, by a severing of 
home ties they did not know were so greatly appreciated by them till a 
stranger came and told them the fatherland was lost and that a foreigner 
was to be their king in a country they decided was free. 

"The letter !" they said. "A reply to the letter !" 

A reply to the letter was in this form : The council prohibited any 
further supply of provisions to the British force, and strengthened the 
post at Muizenburg with burgher horsemen, pandours and the entire 
garrison from Boetselaar with the exception of one man. This man was 
left to spike the guns in case the English should land. 

The council also wrote the British commanders that they knew the 



30 THE STORY OF 

difference between offered assistance against a possible invader and a 
demand to surrender the colony to the British government. 

" Thus, when the real meaning of the English visitors was known, 
the discontented burghers of the Cape and Stellenbosch ceased their 
troublesome opposition to the government and offered to do their ut- 
most in defence of the colony. When the Commissioner with uncov- 
ered head appeared on the streets and announced that the country was 
their own and would not surrender to the English, the people cheered 
him and called him "Father" Sluysken and read their Bibles and prayed 
for him, the National, or Dutch Reformed, Church, Lutheran, Morav- 
ian, all one in their indignation against the strangers. 

But for all these outward displays of loyalty and patriotism and 
love of their cause, the people were not of one mind. A majority of the 
burghers had imbibed republican ideas — there was North America and 
there was France — and after the first enthusiasm was over they were 
willing to welcome France. They were exasperated by the idea of sub- 
jection by England that was powerful and with unlimited resources both 
as to men and money, and France had freed itself from the shackles of 
tyranny and would surely recognize their own love of freedom. On 
the other hand, certain of the official heads of the colony were lukewarm 
and did not attend to their admitted duty for defence. Colonel Gor- 
don was not slow to express his willingness to admit the English should 
the French threaten an attack. He even said that he would admit them 
if they would promise to hold the country for the Prince of Orange, but 
that if their purpose was to capture the Cape for Great Britain, then he 
would resist them to the last. Then it was that the English declared 
their disappointment in Colonel Gordon. There was Scotch blood in 
his veins and he was a partisan of the Prince of Orange, so they had 
counted upon bringing him over to them from the first. But the 
Scotchman was stubborn, there was not sufficient English blood in him 



SOUTH AFRICA. 31 

to put down the Border strain and he said his say and would stand by 
it — should the French threaten an invasion, the English might come in ; 
if the English would hold the country for the Prince of Orange, they 
might enter. But anything further than this — no ! 

And there was Father Sluysken, no longer with his hat in his hand 
cheered by the people, prayed for by Dutch Reformed, Lutheran, Mo- 
ravian, but only a man holding out against superior force and maybe 
getting everybody into trouble. Only there was a look on his face that 
made them faithful, even if they would have been unfaithful if put to the 
test — a look of grim determination, such as comes to the visage of a man 
who stands by a principle he knows to be right and will not be swerved 
from it by all the forces in the world. But three wedges seemed to be 
forced into the solidness of the cause of the colonist. For a large 
number of the burghers were ready to go against the British because 
they preferred the French if they must have a master, and because the 
French had made themselves free men and would appreciate in others a 
desire to be equally free. Then the lower officials and some of the town 
burghers who had succeeded and maybe looked to the stronger side 
were willing to accept the promises of the British and went about sing- 
ing Orange songs, extolling their dear Stadtholder who had flown from 
the French into England, and believed that the English were sincere in 
professing that their sole purpose in all this matter was to hold the col- 
ony in trust for the Prince of Orange who was allied to them by blood 
and mutual interests. As for Commissioner Sluysken and Colonel Gor- 
don, while it was their supreme duty to defend the Cape interests against 
any usurping power that sought to set aside the authority and govern- 
ment of the Prince and the States-General of Holland, they were not 
entirely sure in their minds as to the course they ought to pursue as .re- 
garded the English. For though they meant to be loyal to their trust 
and stubborn as to transferring it against what they held to be legal and 



32 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

vested authority, yet the English had come to them professing friendship 
for the fugitive Prince and accredited to them by his letter of command, 
while there yet remained with them a doubt that they had not heard all 
the truth of the matter and they must be politic and remain quiet till 
more of the real facts of the case came their way in due course of time. 

There was possible treason in admitting or resisting the English, 
and they must be careful. So those who would go against the British 
because they were not the French were quiet with folded hands waiting 
for the French ; those who believed in the English as the guardians of 
the interests of the Prince were quiet and with folded hands thinking 
that in all events these guardians were at hand should the lovers of the 
French attempt to assume unwarranted authority ; while the followers of 
the Commissioner and Colonel Gordon frowned and waited for a fuller 
verification of all the English brought them by letter and speech. 

The sun shone as ever, the grain ripened, matters assumed their old 
proportions — the home and its gaieties, the care of children, the pro- 
vision for the wife, the council held its meetings for this and that matter 
unmolested by any troublesome stranger, and from the interior came the 
reports of the lessening dangers from the Bushmen who were rapidly 
dying off from drink and disease, leaving the hardy adventurers more 
time to look after herds and their sport, while under their feet rested the 
shining nuggets unsuspected by them, and the sparkling stones which 
should yet make a Kimberley. 

This holding off, this uncertainty on the part of the civil and mil- 
itary heads of the colony, this waiting for something that might 
straighten things out, left the people unprepared for the first attack the 
British were soon to make on the holders of South Africa. 



CHAPTER II. 

Conflict of authority— British blockade Table Bay — Terms offered by British — Sur- 
render of Cape Colony to British — Restored to Dutch — Ceded to Great Britain; — 
Slavery suppressed — Dissatisfaction of Boers — The "Great Trek" — Settlement 
in Orange Free State — Paul Kruger an immigrant — Zulu warfare — Matabele tribe 
—Transvaal Republic — Natalia Republic — Pietermaritzburg. 

OWARD the end of June, 1795, it was plain to be seen 
that the British commanders who had not been able 
to obtain peaceful possession of the Cape Colony meant 
to use force to carry out their wishes. 

On the 24th of June, Commissioner Sluysken in- 
structed three Dutch merchant ships lying in Simon's Bay to go to Ta- 
ble Bay. Admiral Elphinstone forbade them to sail. Four days later 
two small vessels with the American flag floating over them anchored 
in Simon's Bay. The Columbia, one of the vessels, carried Dutch 
despatches from Amsterdam to the Cape. Admiral Elphinstone at once 
placed a guard on the Columbia and seized her mails. Letters and des- 
patches concerning public affairs were suppressed and every effort was 
made to prevent newspapers from being carried ashore. 

However, one paper found its way to land and then the people 
learned the most astonishing news which had long been known to the 
British who had come to take possession of the Cape. For the paper 
told them that an official notice, dated March 4th, 1795, absolved them 
from their oath of allegiance to the Prince of Orange. From this no- 
tice and from hints left in half destroyed letters to private individuals 

they learned that so far from being a country under the heel of France, 

33 




34 



THE STORY OF 



Holland, the mother country, was a free republic with which France held 
friendly relations, and that they themselves were as free. 

The commissioner announced that the colony must now hold out 
against the English. By order of the council Simonstown was aban- 
doned as being unable to be retained, but all provisions were destroyed, 
guns were spiked, and such ammunition as could not be carried away 
was thrown into the sea. The British ships blockaded Table Bay, so 
the council chartered a cutter and sent her with despatches to Batavia 
informing the Dutch colonists there of the state of affairs in Holland and 
at the Cape. A call was made for all colonists to assemble at Cape 
Town. The different posts were manned, and all along the roads 
pickets guarded the road from the camps to the town. 

Then Admiral Elphinstone seized three more Dutch merchant ves- 
sels that were lying in Simon's Bay and in July he landed soldiers and 
marines in Simonstown and held possession of the dismantled place. 
But active hostilities were not yet begun, and it was not until the 3d of 
August that an act was committed which might be construed as an act 
of war. On that day a Burgher fired at an English picket that was spy- 
ing on him, and General Craig reported in his despatches to England 
that war had begun. A few days later the British advanced from 
Simonstown to Muizenburg. The warships America, Stately, Echo 
and Rattlesnake headed for Muizen Beach. 

The Dutch camp was roused. From Kalk Bay, where the British 
would land, to Muizenburg the roadway was narrow, the water on one 
side, a steep mountain on the other. 

When they came within range of Kalk Bay the British ships opened 
fire, and the Dutch pickets stationed there retired over the mountain. 
When they were abreast of Muizenburg the British fleet delivered their 
broadsides upon the Dutch camp. The English guns were raised too 
high, for the shot passed over the camp. But the Dutch saw that they 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



35 



could not hold their post, so spiking their guns they retreated. The 
English followed them, cheering. The Dutch tried to make a stand, 
but the bayonets of England's superior numbers routed them. But 
after gaining the shelter of the mountain the Dutch again faced their 
pursuers and this time they had guns, so the British were compelled to 
fall back to Muizenburg. The next day was a day of panic. The 
English advanced, wading through water that came up to their waists. 
The Dutch general, De Lille, and his command fled, though the advan- 
tage appeared to be on their side, their enemy in the water and they on 
high ground looking down upon them. As the British came ashore 
they saw a party of Dutch that was coming from Cape Town. They 
then considered the flight of De Lille a subterfuge, and that they were 
in the midst of an ambuscade. Therefore the British turned and fled, 
pursued by the Cape Town detachment until they reached General 
Craig. 

On the 9th of August British reinforcements began to arrive. Ad- 
miral Elphinstone and General Craig wrote the commissioners of his 
strength and again offered to take Cape Town under British protection, 
or else the Dutch should take the consequences of their foolish fighting 
with a nation that was bound to conquer. 

The commissioner and council laid the matter before the people. 
There was not a dissenting voice — the people declared that the colony 
should be defended from the usurpers till the very last. But many things 
were combining to weaken the Burgher forces. The Bushmen had 
risen and were threatening the interior, the Hottentots and the slaves 
were about to rise in revolt. Thus it was rumored. True or false, these 
rumors caused many of the Burghers to desert the ranks and go to the 
protection of their homes and families, for many of them knew only too 
well the horrors of a Hottentot uprising, while the Bushmen knew no 
mercy, and the slaves could be easily influenced by the wild men. Then 



36 THE STORY OF 

after the failure to capture certain English outposts, certain of the pan- 
dours mutinied and complained that they were not paid enough for 
their services and that their rations of spirits were too small. Commis- 
sioner Sluysken pacified them and they returned to the ranks, but they 
were sullen and dissatisfied from that time on, and their service could 
not be relied upon. 

But the Dutch were brave, and they planned an attack on the Brit- 
ish at Muizenburg. When about to attempt it a fleet of East Indiamen 
brought reinforcements to the British. This so discouraged the Burgh- 
ers that many more of them returned home. Once more the British 
commanders issued an address to the colonists, demanding peaceful ad- 
mission to the overwhelming force. Commissioner Sluysken replied as 
before, that, he would hold and defend the colony for its rightful own- 
ers, for by his oath of office he was bound to do so. 

The English army marched from Muizenburg to attack Cape Town 
on the 14th of September. This movement was signalled to the colon- 
ial officers at the Cape. They ordered- all the' cavalry, with the excep- 
tion of one company, to support the regular troops at Cape Town. A 
part of the force was sent out to strengthen the Dutch camp at Wyn- 
berg, about half way from Muizenburg to Cape Town on the road of the 
British. Major Van Baalen, commanding the troops at Wynberg, was 
faulty in arranging his line of battle, and planted his cannon in such po- 
sitions that they were useless as weapons to be used against the British. 
When the Englishmen came within gun fire, the Major retreated with 
the greater part of the regulars. Then followed a scene of confusion. 
The burghers, not quite sure of their officers, cried out that they were 
being betrayed in every battle. One company of infantry and most of 
the artillery made a stand, but were forced to retreat toward Cape Town, 
leaving the camp and all its belongings to the British. 

It now became clear to the burgher cavalry that Commissioner 



SOUTH AFRICA. 33 

Sluysken, Colonel Gordon, and most of the officers of the regular force 
fought to lose — that they were willing to let the colony fall into the 
hands of the British that it might be held in trust by them for the Prince 
of Orange. The burghers therefore dispersed and returned ta their 
homes, while a British squadron was threatening Cape Town, though 
keeping out of range of the Cape Town guns. 

The council met on the evening of the 14th of September to con- 
sider the serious situation. At that time a British force of over four 
thousand men was less than ten miles from Cape Town. The colonial 
force was only seventeen hundred strong, and nearly half of these had 
that day retreated, while the remainder were distributed among the for- 
tified posts at Hout Bay, Camp's Bay and Table Valley. Even if all 
these were united and determined to fight to the last they would cer- 
tainly be overpowered in the end. But they were by no means united, 
some were for the banished Prince of Orange, and therefore favorable 
to the English who professed to be their friends ; others advocated the 
new republican form of government. Besides, they had no leaders in 
whom they placed confidence. 

As a result of the meeting of the council it was decided to send a 
flag of truce to the British, asking for a suspension of hostilities for two 
days till terms of surrender might be arranged. General Clarke, repre- 
senting, the British, consented to one day only, and that day to begin at 
midnight on the 14th of September. 

As a result of a conference between representatives of the Cape 
government and the British commanders, the following terms were 
agreed to : The Dutch troops were to surrender as prisoners of war, 
their officers to remain free in Cape Town or - return to Europe after 
promising not to fight against Great Britain. No new taxes were to be 
levied, and the old taxes were to be reduced as much as possible so as to 
try to revive the almost ruined trade of the colony. All the belongings 



4 o THE STORY OF 

of the Dutch East India Company were to go to the British. 
Early on the morning of the 16th these terms of surrender were 
completed, and the council closed its last session and its existence. 
When all was at an end, all their endeavors proved useless, the Dutch 
troops called down curses upon "Father" Sluysken and Colonel Gordon 
for having, as they said, betrayed and disgraced them. Though noth- 
ing else could have been done by the sorely tried commissioner and the 
Scotch Colonel. 

Thus it was that Cape Colony, founded by the Dutch, and governed 
by the Netherlands for a hundred and forty-three years, passed into the 
possession of Great Britain. This is the story of the first armed conflict 
between the Britain and the Boer. But the Dutch were not to be left 
for long without regaining their lost colony. It was restored to them 
on the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, in 1802. When war broke 
out afresh in Europe, in 1806, and Napoleon was creating consternation, 
England again seized the Cape to prevent Napoleon from occupying 
so important a half-way station to the British possessions in India. This 
second seizure was accomplished after a single engagement with the 
Dutch, who again could not resist vastly superior numbers, and whose 
scattered population were not in a position to defend themselves. 

Besides, the colonists had so much to contend with. They waged 
war against their natural enemies, the wild beasts — lion, leopard and 
others, snakes of various sizes and kinds, from the poisonous black 
momba to the python that grows to over twenty feet in length. Then 
the baboons killed the lambs, as they do to this day, and then as now 
the country was infested by white ants and locusts which sometimes 
ravage the eastern coast. 

In 1814 the colony with certain ceremonies was ceded to the Brit- 
ish crown together with certain Dutch possessions in South America, 
by the Netherlands, for a consideration amounting to thirty million dol- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



4i 



lars. The Boer seemed content with this arrangment, being n6t polit- 
ical and content to raise his crops, increase his cattle and sheep which 
were profitable in the market, and to turn his eyes to a further source of 
income in his crops of sugar, tea, coffee, indigo, arrowroot, ginger, rice, 
pepper, tobacco, cotton and a goodly number of valuable cereals of all 
kinds. 

In the beginning of the second season of control by the British 
there seemed to be a fair prospect of peace. The Dutch, from whom 
the Africander largely descended, and the English were not far separ- 
ated as to personal feeling ; their two languages were so far alike that 
the one found it easy to learn the speech of the other ; they both loved 
liberty and they both held the Protestant faith. The first few years after 
the second occupancy by the English found the much needed schools 
established, trade in slaves forbidden, while missionaries were sent 
among the wild natives and brought many into civilization. 

Emigrants arrived from England, Germany, France and other Eu- 
ropean nations. The new comers soon became as the earlier colonists 
and learned to speak either English or the Dutch dialect that was the 
favored mode of speech. But the peace did not last. For the colonists 
were irritable under the idea that they were not free, but had been trans- 
ferred to the rule of a foreign nation. Then they did not like the idea of 
living in communities. Many of them were farmers, it is true, but most 
of them were stockmen roaming over large tracts of land and knowing 
little of the life in towns, and the English idea of bringing them closer 
together was not welcomed. An incident may be told to show how far 
apart were the Dutch settlers and the English. 

A Boer was accused of injuring a native servant. When the au- 
thorities would have arrested the accused man his neighbors rallied 
around him and tried to prevent his being taken. In consequence sev- 
eral prisoners were taken, six of whom were condemned to death. Five 



42 THE STORY OF 

of theriy'-vere hanged. Crowds of Africanders stood about the gallows 
hoping the men would be pardoned at the last moment, but they were 
hange'J The people named the ridge where the execution took place, 
"ScW;hter's Nek," or "Butcher's Ridge," and they never forgot it. 
An j^lier cause for anger on the part of the colonists was the use of Eng- 
lish instead of the Dutch language in official documents. Still another 
cause grew out of the Kaffir wars. Many struggles had occurred be- 
tween the colonists and the Kaffir tribes on the eastern border. The 
Kaffirs were driven off. But the English insisted that the colonists had 
ill treated the natives in these fights, and orders came that the Kaffirs 
should return to their old haunts where they once more worried the 
border farmers. But the principle cause arose from the slave question. 
Slavery had been practiced by the Dutch as it was in most parts of the 
world. The early missionaries had tried to stop it, but were not suc- 
cessful. In later years most of the missionaries came from England 
where slavery was rapidly becoming something to regard with horror. 
The missionaries and the slave holders were constantly in opposition. 

In 1828 an ordinance, much to the disgust of the colonists, placed 
the Hottentots and other free colored people on the same footing with 
the whites as to their rights, and following this came a law abolishing 
slavery in all British dominions (1834). Some fifteen million dollars 
was sent to the colonists to compensate them for the loss of their slaves. 
They considered this far below the loss, for 39,000 slaves had been set 
free. Then the certificates could be cashed in London only, so the slave 
holders had to sell them to speculators at a heavy discount. 

The Africanders knew that rebellion against Great Britain was out 
of the question. So they went out into the wilderness, poor, to begin 
life over again in the way they wished, away from the English. 

Then began the "great trek"of 1836. The Africanders left their 
former homes in the possession of the English and went toward the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 43 

north, seeking a country where they would be free according to their 
own ideas of freedom. To the north and east of the utmost limit of the 
European settlement was a region since divided into the Orange Free 
State, the Transvaal or South African Republic, and the British colony 
of Natal. Of course it was near the fierce Zulus, and it was filled with 
enormous beasts of prey. But the Africanders knew what it was to 
fight with savage men and wild beasts, so to get away from the exper- 
iences that might be theirs under the government set up at Cape Col- 
ony, they chose the wilderness with all its hardships and perils, for there 
was liberty and freedom. 

They compared themselves to the children of Israel forsaking 
Egypt and going toward a land of promise, thinking that as Pharaoh 
had pursued Israel, so the English Governor would now pursue the Afri- 
canders. But the English Governor decided to let them go, for there 
was no way of stopping them. 

They began the journey in small parties, driving their cattle before 
them. The men carried arms for defence and for killing game for food. 
They were wonderful marksmen, which was their only salvation in the 
fierce and long struggle that lay before them. 

Between 1836 and 1838 ten thousand Africanders thus set forth. 
They travelled in large covered wagons drawn by strings of oxen, some 
of the wagons jogging on behind ten and twelve yoke. Paul Kruger 
was with them, then a boy ten years of age, and he helped to drive his 
father's cattle across the mountain range, little dreaming of the high po- 
sition to which he would one day be called, President Kruger, "Oom 
Paul." 

The first division that trekked consisted of ninety-eight persons 
who travelled in thirty wagons. They were almost lost, disaster and 
ruin meeting them. They went into the far northeast beyond the Vaal 
River — the territory that afterward became the South African Republic, 



44 THE STORY OF 

or the Transvaal. Here the natives met them, and many fell in battle, 
pierced by assegais. Those who were left were soon thinned out, by 
fever and from privation caused by the death of their cattle through the 
attacks by the terrible tsetse fly. After almost incredible sufferings, a 
mere handful escaped and wandered eastward to Delagoa Bay. 

Another and much larger division of the travellers was formed by 
the closing together of several small parties that met at a rocky peak 
called Thaba Ntschu, situated close to the eastern border of what was 
afterward known as the Orange Free State, and in sight of Blomfontein. 
This division became involved in fights with a branch of the fierce Zulu 
race afterward called the Mattabele. This tribe had a chief, Motsile- 
katze, who was a general of talent and energy and a brave man. The 
Mattabele looked upon the Africanders as trespassers who had no right 
upon the territory and attacked and massacred a detachment of the im- 
migrants. The whites knew they were what the Mattabele called them, 
trespassers, but then the Mattabele had a short time before slaughtered 
or driven out of the region a number of Kaffir tribes who had held pos- 
session before them so they did not hesitate to meet the Zulu with the 
same treatment the Zulu had met the Kaffir. In fact, the Africanders 
feeling that they had been driven from their old homes in Cape Town 
seemed to regard the natives as the children of Israel under Joshua may 
have regarded the tribes of Canaan — they had come to take possession 
of the land and to bring the heathen inhabitants to a state of subjection 
by whatever means it was in their power to use. The savages had 
killed and tortured one of their detachments, so they had now that un- 
provoked attack to avenge. This they proceeded to do. They massed 
their whole strength against the Zulu general, Motsilekatze, and with 
fury routed his much superior force with awful slaughter, so that he fled 
before them far to the northwest, not stopping in his flight till he had 
crossed the Limpopo River. At that point there he, in turn, made 



SOUTH AFRICA. 45 

havoc of the natives dwelling between that stream and the Zambesi 
River, and having rid himself of them established the Mattabele king- 
dom. This was of such strength that it was a very scourge to all neigh- 
boring peoples until its overthrow and subjection in 1893. 

By the defeat of the Mattabele and the expulsion of Motsilekatze, 
the Africanders, who had avenged their brethren, gained possession of 
the enormous territory lying between the Orange River on the south 
and the Limpopo on the north. Here they settled, and the small com- 
munities which they established became in time the large population of 
the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic. 

In the meanwhile the largest and most completely organized of 
the three expeditions which were pioneers of those yet to come, and the 
one under the leadership of Peter Retief trekked first to the eastward 
and then turned southward into the warmer and wonderfully fruitful 
country that lay between the Quathlamba range of high mountains and 
the Indian ocean. There were few native inhabitants here, only a small 
tribe of Zulus. In 1820 there had been native wars of tribe against 
tribe, and the country was nearly depopulated. They also discovered a 
little English settlement at Natal, where the town of Durban is now 
situated. These Englishmen had had ceded to them by King Tshaka 
the narrow sea strip they occupied. They had set up a small republic 
as a present form of government. They had applied for standing as an 
English colony, and the British government was still considering the 
advisability of their request when the Africanders put in an appearance. 
The immigrants paid little attention to them, they were of so little ac- 
count. 

But with the desire to be at peace with the Zulus the "Africanders 
went to their king, Dingaan, and asked for a ceding of territory to them. 
The King treated them well and at once promised them everything they 
wished. But the next day when they were about to depart, after drink- 



46 THE STORY OF 

ing a cup of native beer with him, he gave a sign and his warriors fell 
on the visitors and slew them. Pieter Retief and all who were with him 
on the embassy fell, after which the savages attacked a small body of im- 
migrants that were in camp near by and put an end to them all. 

This massacre roused all the Africander immigrants and they took 
vengence on the treacherous King, who with his people were put to 
rout. The Africanders owed their victory to their good marksmanship 
and their bravery. 

Two years later the King's brother, Panda, who was at the time in 
rebellion against Dingaan, came with reinforcements to the Africanders 
and together they drove the warrior King out of Zuzuland. Panda was 
then made King in his brother's place, though he was subject to the 
government of the Natalia Republic, as the Africanders called the com- 
munity they had established. 

The Africanders by this time were firmly established and with pre- 
cision and accuracy set about planning the laws which should shield 
them from encroachment from outsiders. They were so far away from 
the route of European adventurers, they had suffered so much to gain 
what they had that they felt when hostilities with the natives were put 
down that they had come into the land of promise indeed and in their 
stern way believed that Providence was with them. If they ever 
thought of Cape Town it was with the feeling that though it had been 
taken from them by unfair means, their seceding from it had only 
worked for their good. For now their experience with the Englanders 
taught them the lesson that in union was strength and that the old wav- 
ering of action and internal dissension had robbed them of their rights, 
and that henceforth they must stand together, free men, owing allegi- 
ance to no European power, a republic, a community, in which the duty 
of each man was to work for all and so gain the best for his individual 
self. The land they were in flowed with milk and honey, the soil was 



SOUTH AFRICA. 47 

rich in the extreme, the climate good, their cattle upon a thousand hills 
fair to see, their exertions crowned with fatness. 

They were thoroughly disgusted with British rule, and they wanted 
only the rule which Providence grants to men in absolute freedom to do 
their best, unhampered by other men's tyranny and the greed of 
stronger powers. They reasoned that if ever men had cause to turn 
their backs on unjust and unfaithful government they had, when after 
losing their property and being deprived of the fruits of a victory gained 
through vast exertion and hardship, they had to take up the battle of 
life again, and inspan their oxen and go out into another wilderness 
which they must conquer as they had conquered the one which had been 
wrested from them. 

About this time they began to survey and apportion the land. 
They founded a city some sixty miles inland from Port Natal. This city 
has since been known as Pietermaritzburg. 

The founding of this city, with other actions of a similar nature, 
brought about the second contact between Boer and Briton, which will 
now be told. 



CHAPTER III. 

Pretorius — Attack by British on Natalia — Natalia, a British possession — Second Trek 
— Basutos — Doctor Philip — Giving back to British rule of Orange River sover- 
eignty — Transvaal Republic — British give up Orange River country — Secheli — ■ 
Doctor Livingstone — Slavery called "apprenticeship" — Third contact between 
Boer and Britain — Discovery of diamonds — Rush to the Cape — 'Claimants to the 
diamond lands — British courts award the lands to Orange Free State — British 
flag over the territory before courts decide — Money paid to Orange Free State to 
relinquish claim. 

T is true the British authorities at Cape Colony let the 
Africanders go on their Great Trek without opposition, 
but without announcing the fact the government still held 
that the emigrants, go where they might, were still British 
subjects, and that any territory they might occupy would 
be British territory by reason of the Africanders using it. 
When the Republic of Natalia was about organizing, a small 
party of British troops which had been at Port Natal was withdrawn. 
This the Africanders took to mean that the British government aban- 
doned all claim to the country. 

But the actions of the Africanders were watched by the authorities 
at the Cape. The Africanders expelling the Kaffirs and trying to force 
them into a territory already occupied by another tribe was condemned 
and the government held that this attack on the Kaffirs was insolence 
which should be checked. So it was determined to establish British 
rule over Port Natal and a large part of the territory north and west of it. 
A small military force under Captain Smith was sent to take po$- 

49 




So 



THE STORY OF 



session of Port Natal in 1842. Captain Smith hauled down the flag of 
the Natalia Republic and hoisted in its place the British Union Jack. 

For a few days afterward there was much correspondence between 
the Africander leader, Pretorius, and the British commander, but there 
was no agreement reached. 

The English encamped on a piece of level ground in front of the 
town. The Africanders gathered about three miles from the British, 
on the river Congella. Captain Smith gave the Africanders fifteen days 
to come to a decision as to whether or not they would call themselves 
English subjects. This time was used by the Africanders to strengthen 
their force and intrenching their camp. 

Captain Reus, a Dutch shipmaster, put into Natal one day before 
the arrival of the British. He spoke as one having authority when he 
gave the Africanders to understand that the Holland government would 
take up their cause and interest other European powers in it, and advised 
them to keep quiet till their friends in Europe could act. So the Afri- 
canders drew up a declaration of allegiance to the Dutch government 
and protested against the occupation of the country by the British, who 
with their thirty millions of dollars had only bought possession of that 
portion of Southern Africa then occupied by the Dutch, and not the 
whole land. So the Africanders paid attention to Captain Smith's offer 
of giving them fifteen days to consider his proposition by doing all they 
could to resist him. 

Gn the 23d of May, three days beyond the fifteen allowed, a night 
attack was made on the Africanders' camp by the British. Captain 
Smith found his enemy ready for him, and after a sharp engagement in 
which the British lost more than a hundred men in killed, wounded and 
missing, the captain retired to the fortified camp at Port Natal. 

The Africanders at once besieged the English garrison and but for 



SOUTH AFRICA. 5 1 

the bravery and endurance of a young Englishman would have caused 
it to surrender. This young Englishman was named Richard King. 
It was six hundred miles across Kaffaria, from Port Natal to Grahams^ 
town, the nearest point where help might be had for the beleaguered 
garrison. Young King made the distance in ten days, and a force un- 
der Lieutenant Colonel Cloete was despatched by sea and reached the 
garrison after it had been closely besieged for thirty days and was 
famished. The Africanders withdrew to a camp twelve miles away, ex- 
pecting to be attacked there. But the English had much to do before 
fighting, provisions and ammunitions were to be landed and posts estab- 
lished. Pretorius, whose force was now 400 strong, sent a com- 
munication to Lieutenant Colonel Cloete asking if he wished to confer 
with him. His reply was that unless the Africanders submitted to the 
British government no negotiations would be had. 

Pretorius again wrote, for the Kaffirs were now plundering the 
Africanders of cattle which they sold to the English. He said the Afri- 
canders were anxious to end the war and prevent bloodshed, yet they 
could not submit to the British crown. 

Lieutenant Colonel Cloete replied that while continued war would 
also mean that the native barbarians would rise and murder and steal, 
yet the Africanders had only themselves to blame for anything they 
might suffer, as all they had to do was to submit' to her Britannic 
Majesty. He added that he was sorry they had allowed themselves to 
be deceived by Captain Reus, for the King of Holland had no right now 
to interfere, and the European powers had no intention of doing any- 
thing for the Africanders. 

Such correspondence continued into 1843, when a meeting be- 
tween Pretorius and other Africander leaders and Lieutenant Colonel 
Cloete took place at Pietermaritzburg. 



52 THE STORY OF 

Out of this parley came a treaty by which Natal was acknowledged 
a British colony. The Africanders were to be considered British sub- 
jects, though they were not to take the oath of allegiance to the queen. 
The guns they had captured, as well as all their own guns and amraun- 
nition, were to be given up. All prisoners were to be released, and those 
who had engaged in hostilities were to be pardoned with the exception 
of four persons, among whom was Mr. Pretorius. By a later article in 
the treaty, Pretorius was also to be forgiven because he had helped in 
arranging the terms of surrender. 

The Volksraad, or council, of the little Africander republic agreed 
to the terms and to the government by the British. But they were bit- 
ter and wrathful, especially as the savage blacks were given equal civil 
rights with themselves. 

This taking into its power by the British of the young republic 
seemed a turning point in the history of South Africa, for now Great 
Britain had command of the east coast and owned a centre of influence 
in the garden spot of Africa. Besides, it made it easy for the British to 
acquire territories in Bululand and in Tongaland. 

Now the Africanders who had trekked into the lands lying between 
the Orange river and the Limpopo, west of Natal, had had great trouble 
with the savage tribes. But these tribes were less terrible than the 
Zulus. They were Kaffirs, and the chief of one of the tribes was 
Moshesh, of the Basutos. Moshesh was merciful to his prisoners and 
was mild in his rule. He had even invited the missionaries to teach his 
people a better way of life. The missionaries were all Europeans, some 
of them British. So when the Basutos and the Africanders fought, the 
Basutos, instructed of their missionaries, were careful not to offend the 
British government. 

In 1843 tne Africanders of this part of Africa were scattered over a 



SOUTH AFRICA. 53 

spread of country seven hundred miles long by three hundred wide. 
The soil being dry and parched was not very good for raising grain. So 
many of the people turned to stock farming and tending their flocks and 
widely separated from their friends by the distances between them they 
became wild in their love of freedom. But they must be united in some 
way, for they must act together against the natives and the claims of the 
British government. They formed several small communities, each 
to manage its own affairs by a general meeting of all the citizens. It 
was found, however, that they were so far apart, and it took so long for 
them to meet at any one place, that they formed the Volksraad, a council 
with delegates from all the different sections. 

Also at this time the Cape was considered the least prosperous of 
all the British colonies, and there was a growing desire to annex more of 
South Africa. Doctor Philip, an English missionary, recommended a 
line of native states under British control along the northeast border of 
Cape Colony. These would, he said, destroy the influence of the trou- 
blesome Africanders to the north over their brethren who were yet cit- 
izens of the old colony, and they would also separate the native tribes in 
the colony from the other tribes in the interior. Treaties were made 
with the tribes, with the Griqua leader, Waterboer; with Moshesh, of 
the Basutos ; with Adam Kok, a leader of the Orange River Griquas. 
It was believed that these three states would keep the colony from the 
disturbing Africanders to the north of them. 

But the Africanders living in the territory of the Griquas refused to 
be bound by a treaty made by what they called "the half breeds." Then 
Doctor Philip advised a military post at Bloemfontein, half way between 
the Orange River and the Vaal, to enforce order and carry out the pro- 
visions of the treaty. In 1848, following these steps, the British took 
as their possession the whole country between the Orange and the 
Vaal, under the name of the Orange River Sovereignty. 



54 THE STORY OF 

Then the Africanders rose to assert their independence once more, 
and were reinforced by their brethren beyond the Vaal. 

Under Pretorius, who had opposed the British in Natal, they at- 
tacked Bloemfontein and captured the garrison and advanced to the 
south as far as Orange River. The Governor of Cape Colony, Sir 
Harry Smith, at once despatched a force which met and defeated the 
Africanders at Bloomplats, seventy-five miles north of the Orange 
River, on the 29th of August, 1848. The result of this battle was the 
giving back to British' rule the Orange River Sovereignty. 

But the old unsettled conditions were in force. Fresh quarrels 
among the native tribes called for British interference, and there was a 
war with the Basutos under Moshesh. Then Pretorius threatened to 
sympathize with the Basutos, while the okl colony at the Cape were 
fiercely fighting the Kaffirs on the south coast. There was disturbance 
on all sides, and there seemed little hope for peace and rest till Pretorius, 
who was greatly relied upon by his people, said that some permanent 
peaceful measures must be made with Great Britain. The British au- 
thorities appointed commissioners to meet Pretorius and other repre- 
sentatives of the Transvaal emigrants. Then the home authorities in 
England sent Sir George Clark as special commissioner for settling the 
affairs. He held a meeting at Sand River, in 1852, with the delegates 
of the Africanders living north of the Vaal. At this meeting the Afri- 
canders beyond the Vaal River were told by the British government that 
they might manage their own affairs and govern themselves according 
to their own laws, while they might also purchase ammunition to defend 
themselves. 

The Transvaal Republic, afterward called the South African Re- 
public, dated its independence from this time. It also at the same time 
cut itself loose from the Africanders living in the sovereignty south of 
the Vaal, which those southern brethren considered a traitorous act. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 57 

For a few months after this the Sovereignty at the south continued Brit- 
ish till a defeat of the British by the Basutos changed all this. General 
Cathcart, who had just been made Governor of the Cape, attacked the 
Basutos with a strong force of regulars which were led into ambush and 
suffered such a great loss that they had to suspend hostilities, and the 
chief, Moshesh, saw his opportunity to make peace with the British on 
his own terms. 

The British government determined, then, to abandon the Orange 
River Sovereignty altogether, disgusted as they were by constant war- 
fare and the defeat of the regulars by the Basutos. But the English set- 
tlers in the Sovereignty demanded protection from the savages if such a 
determination were carried into effect. 

Then parliament voted a quarter of a million of dollars (50,000 
pounds) to pay those who might suffer in the coming change, for they 
were anxious to get rid of this large territory which had given them so 
much vexation and was costing them so much. It was in this way that 
independence was positively forced upon the Orange River country. 

Thus it was by its own free will the British government admitted 
the freedom of the Africanders, and believed that in doing so it was act- 
ing for the good of the empire. 

It would be as well to look for a little while upon those Africanders 
who lived at Natal when their brethren left at the time it became British 
territory. They were greatly attached to the homes they had founded 
in that most beautiful part of South Africa, so they made the best of the 
British rule and remained. But the majority, including the more war- 
like and restless spirits took their families and goods, their flocks and 
herds and once more trekked in search of independence. They crossed 
the mountains to the Orange River district and the Transvaat. These 
men loved independence and they objected to being considered by the 
British as on a level with the savage blacks. But they treated the na- 



58 THE STORY OF 

tives anything but kindly. They may be pardoned for their wars with 
the Bushmen and the Kaffirs, for they were righting for their lives. But 
they made slaves of the native men and women, while they themselves 
were loud for freedom. They were largely uneducated people, and liv- 
ing as they did, apart from civilization and the advantages of intercourse 
with progress, they were a law unto themselves in their actions. Often 
they went through the more unsettled parts of the country cheating and 
ill treating the people, who seemed to think that those who thus ill used 
them represented the better element of the Africanders. 

There was an Africander expedition under acting Commandant 
General Scholtz against Secheli, chief of the Baquaines, a tribe of Zulus. 
The Africander complaint was that the Baquaines were always disturb- 
ing the country, stealing and threatening, and that they were sheltering 
a troublesome chief named Mosolele. After some small skirmishes the 
Africander force drew near to Sechelis town, in the direction of the great 
lake, 25th of August, 1852. On the 28th Scholtz marched closer to the 
town where Secheli was fortified. It was Saturday. Scholtz would 
not fight till Monday; he would keep the Lord's Day in peace. How- 
ever, he sent a letter to Secheli demanding the surrender of Mosolele. 

Secheli replied that he would not give up Mosolele. "Wait till 
Monday," he said ; "then we will see who is the stronger man. You are 
already in my pot ; I shall only have to put the lid on it on Monday. ,, 

- On Monday the battle began. Scholtz carried all the native en- 
trenchments, killed a number of warriors, and captured many guns and 
prisoners. Secheli retreated. Scholtz had not lost a single man. 

Doctor Livingstone was chief of the missionaries and denounced 
slavery, and consequently he was hated by these Africanders. Living- 
stone's house was opened and robbed during this expedition against 
Secheli. This is what Scholtz said in his report : 

"I despatched Commandant Schutte with a patrol to Secheli's old 



SOUTH AFRICA. 59 

town, but he found it evacuated, and the missionary residence broken 
open by the Kaffirs. The Commandant found, however, two percus- 
sion rifles, and the Kaffir prisoners declared that Livingstone's house, 
which was still locked, contained ammunition, and that shortly before 
he had exchanged thirteen guns with Secheli, which I had also learnt 
two weeks previously, the missionaries Inglis and Edwards having re- 
lated it to the burghers, A. Bytel and J. Synman ; and that Livingstone's 
house had been broken open by Secheli to get powder and lead. I 
therefore resolved to open the house, which was still locked, in which we 
found several half finished guns and a gUn maker's shop with abund- 
ance of tools. We here found more guns and tools than Bibles, so that 
the place had more the appearance of a gun maker's shop than a mis- 
sion station, and more of a smuggling shop than a school place." 

But we all know Doctor Livingstone's character too well, his trials 
and sufferings to convert the savages in South Africa, to believe any- 
thing against his innocent godliness. General Scholtz may have found 
all that he said he did in the missionary's house, but it is well to know 
that in those parts of the country, so far away from carpenters, wagon 
makers and smiths, it was necessary for the explorer to have with him all 
tools required in making and repairing wagons, harness, guns, and 
whatever else belonged to his outfit. 

General Scholtz, like many of the other Africanders, did not like 
the missionaries because they were not in favor of slavery. Had the 
General agreed with the missionaries in many ways, he would have seen 
in Doctor Livingstone's house not a gun factory working for the sav- 
ages, but an honest repair shop such as any pioneer in that region found 
necessary to have. 

But turning from this we may consider for awhile the Africander's 
reason for slavery. For generations both the men and the women had 
depended upon other labor than that of their own hands to do the se- 



6o 



THE STORY OF 



verer and more disagreeable duties of life if such labor could be ob- 
tained in any way. 

Twice they had trekked in order to get away from British power 
that wished to tell them what they should do. But now they had ac- 
cepted independent national life and in honor they must suppress slav- 
ery. A new system came into operation. They called it "apprentice- 
ship" and "registration" of prisoners of war taken in the fights with the 
natives. They said it was meant in kindness, that they took the orphan 
children of the Kaffirs and apprenticed them to the Africanders for a 
term of years, till the orphans arrived at the age of twenty-one. The 
new system was slavery under a pleasanter name. 

But the Africanders meant nothing but honesty and they justified 
themselves in their practice toward the natives. They were very relig- 
ious and they had the utmost regard for the Bible, though it is to be 
feared that in these matters some scraps from the Old Testament influ- 
enced them, rather than the gentler examples of the New. So they 
looked upon the dark people around them as the still "accursed" sons of 
Canaan, the son of Ham, doomed to perpetual slavery to any who chose 
to take them, because of the sin of their forefather, Ham. It was their 
custom to meet for prayer before making one of their hunts from which 
they returned with new slaves. Not all the Africanders believed and 
practiced in this way, though a majority of them did. So slavery went 
on, though it was called "apprenticeship." 

And now (about 1845) fortune seeking people were looking toward 
Cape Colony. Between four and five thousand came from England. 
Then a number of disbanded German soldiers who had served in the 
Crimean war settled along the south coast on land once occupied by the 
Kaffirs. 

Sheep and cattle raising became sources of wealth. Churches and 
schools sprang up. With the growth of the population there came 



SOUTH AFRICA. 63 

changes in the form of government. The Europeans dwelling among 
the dark races regarded the natives as being there for their benefit and 
they were angry at the authorities for giving the blacks the same rights 
as they had. It was the old story over again. This anger had the effect 
of making the Dutch colonists and the new English arrivals agree in 
matters concerning the government of the natives. After attempts to 
satisfy the people with a Governor appointed by the Queen the English 
authorities, in 1854, yielded to the public demand and a Legislative 
Council and a House of Assembly were established, both to be elected 
by the people of any race or color who held a reasonable amount of 
property. This, of course, kept out, to a large extent, the people of 
color. After this, matters settled down to a degree, and there seemed 
to be a fair amount of peace and union among the people. And then, 
in 1869, came the discovery of diamonds. The rush to Cape Colony 
was tremendous, and every portion of the world seemed to send seekers 
after the brilliant stones to the place. 

But now we will turn from the Cape for awhile and consider the 
events that led up to the third unfriendly contact between the Boer and 
the Briton, and this time began in the Orange Free State. 

As has been told, the conventions of 1852 and 1854 agreed that 
Great Britain should give up all claim to that part of the interior of 
South Africa lying to the north of Cape Colony, and recognize the re- 
publics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. For a few years all 
was peace between the Cape Colony and its northern neighbors. Then 
a war broke out between the Basutos under Moshesh and the Orange 
Free State, the Basutos claiming certain farms in Harrismith, Wyn- 
burg and Smithfleld districts. Accordingly, the Volksraad of the Or- 
ange Free State authorized the President, Mr. Boshof, to take steps to 
prevent any raids upon the territory of the State. When the hostilities 
of the Basutos grew more and more bold, Mr. Boshof was convinced 



64 



THE STORY OF 



that the Free State could not hold out against the Basutos and that they 
must have aid. Mr. Boshof wrote to Sir George Gray, Governor of 
Cape Colony, and Sir George mediated between Boshof and Moshesh 
and cessation of hostilities was agreed upon till terms of peace might be 
arranged. 

In the meantime, the Free State was being ravaged on its western 
borders by petty chiefs of savages, who saw in the struggle between the 
whites and the powerful Basutos a good opportunity to get rich quickly 
by sudden rushes upon the cattle. In the distress occasioned by this new 
source of worriment the Free State was aided by a force of burghers 
from the Transvaal. This force was led by S. J. P. Kruger, whom we 
have seen as a little emigrant boy driving his father's cattle away from 
Cape Town when the English rule had grown so intolerant to the colon- 
ists — the lad who was afterward to be "Oom Paul," President Kruger of 
the Transvaal Republic. Out of his friendly act grew up a desire to 
make the two republics one. President Pretorius, Commandant Kru- 
ger and other representatives from the Transvaal visited Bloemfontein 
to confer with the Free State Volksraad. 

But Sir George Gray hearing of the proposed union of the two re- 
publics sent word that if the union went into effect the conventions of 
1852 and 1854, guaranteeing their separate independence, would be con- 
sidered no longer binding by Great Britain. The negotiations for 
union were therefore dropped and both parties resolved to send com- 
missioners to Sir George to confer with him after he had arranged terms 
of peace with the Basutos. 

This was in June, 1858, and it was not until August that Sir George 
arrived at Bloemfontein to mediate between Moshesh and the Free 
State. At that time it was very necessary to make peace between the 
State and the Basutos, for all available troops were needed in India 
where the Sepoy rebellion was raging and not a British soldier could be 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



65 



spared till that rebellion was put down. The last of September a treaty 
of peace was completed ; it settled a new frontier next to Basutoland and 
bound Moshesh to punish any of his people who attacked the African- 
ders or consent that the Free State authorities should do so. 

This peace lasted only seven years. In 1865 new troubles were 
provoked, and there was a renewal of war between Moshesh and the 
Free State. Again the Governor of Cape Colony was called upon, but 
he could do nothing to satisfy the Basutos and the war went on. 

In 1868 the whites by a supreme effort defeated and routed the 
Basutos with terrible slaughter, and would utterly have broken their 
power only that Moshesh appealed to the British High Commissioner 
at the Cape to take his people under British protection. . 

Very likely the Commissioner thought that if the Basutos were dis- 
persed by the Free State, Cape Colony would be overrun by fugitives 
and would suffer in consequence. Again, he was unwilling that the 
Free State should so strengthen itself that it would never seek re-ad- 
mission to British dominions by the annexation of Basutoland. So the 
Commissioner declared the Basutos British subjects and the Free State 
could say nothing. 

The British now had authority to the south of the republic all the 
way from Cape Colony to Natal, and once more had defeated the Afri- 
canders from extending their territory to the sea. Thus in 1869 the 
British advanced again toward the interior. 

And now we return to the discovery of diamonds in 1869. Natives 
digging had now and then unearthed a sparkling bit of crystal. Some 
of the Africanders saw these shining bits and knew what they were. 
The authorities heard of them, the whole world, it would seem, in no 
time knew that diamonds had been found in the district lying between 
the Modder and the Vaal rivers, where the present town of Kimberly 
stands. Then began the rush. Diggers and speculators came from the 



66 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

utmost parts of the earth, from South Africa, Europe, America and 
Asia. In a few months the district was thronged, and the region was 
transformed into a place of marvellous value and interest — the discovery 
of gold in America, in 1849, was nothing to this find, for here were dia- 
monds, the getting of one of which might make the beggar a millionaire 
at once. 

Immediately the ownership of the land became the point of dis- 
pute. The Orange Free State claimed it. So did the Transvaal Re- 
public. Nicholas Waterboer claimed it, for his father had owned it in 
1834, when under Doctor Philips' plan the attempt was made to make 
three native states under British protection. And it was also claimed 
by a native Batlapin chief. 

The Governor of Natal awarded the ownership to Nicholas Water- 
boer who at once placed himself under the British government which 
immediately made the district a crown colony, calling it Griqualand, 
Waterboer being a Griqua. The Orange Free State protested, and the 
British courts found Waterboer's claim to the district null and void. 
But the colony had been constituted and the British flag flew over it be- 
fore the decision of the court had been made and that constituted own- 
ership, the British government asserting that the population newly ar- 
rived was of such a character that the Free State could not control it and 
gave the Free State the equivalent of five hundred thousand dollars in 
settlement of any claim they might have. The Africanders felt that 
they had not had a fair show, though they could do nothing. Never- 
theless, the Orange Free State, while rankling with the feeling that they 
had been the victims of sharp practice, took the situation quietly, and 
tending their cattle, thought of the glittering baubles that were daily 
being brought to light in land that was theirs by right, but which right 
they had no power to exert. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Third contact of Africander and Briton — Civil war growing out of presidential 
election — Schoeman opposed to Pretorius — Kruger to drive out Schoeman — Sto- 
ry of Kruger — Otawayo — Zulu warfare — Transvaal annexed by British — Sir 
Bartle Frere — Sir Gaunt Wolseley — Mass meeting of Boers — Laing's Nek — Ma- 
juba Hill — Transvaal restored to Africanders and Kruger elected president. 

HE Africanders beyond the Vaal river were of a ruder 
type than those in the Orange river district. For reck- 
less adventurers and even criminal classes from various 
parts of South Africa were attracted to the Transvaal 
because there was freedom there away from the govern- 
ment of the British colonies. This new population provoked many dis- 
turbances with the Kaffirs and were violent and lawless. The farmers 
considered themselves one people, but being grouped in several districts 
far removed from one another, and being overrun by the lawless ele- 
ment, they formed themselves into four separate communities, Potch- 
efstroom, Utrecht, Lyndenburg, and Zoutspanburg, each having a 
president and a volksraad. These communities had been formed for 
protection (1852) and they worked together. Occasionally there was 
an independent action by a single community, for in 1857 tne People of 
Potchefstroom district invaded the Orange Free State under Pretorius, 
as has been told, in order to conquer the Free State. But the Free 
State defended itself and the result of the invasion was a treaty by which 
the boundaries and the independence of the two republics were settled. 
A single volksraad for the whole four districts north of the Vaal was 
chosen in 1858, and the federal constitution was adopted by Potchefs- 

67 




68 



THE STORY OF 



troom and Zoutspanburg. Lyndenburg and Utrecht followed this ex- 
ample in i860. But a civil war broke out in 1862 and the union of the 
four districts was delayed, while the war had an almost ruinous effect on 
the future of the country. 

This war grew out of the election of the president of the Transvaal 
Republic, Pretorius's son, to the presidency of the Orange Free State. 
It was hoped by those who favored the election that the one presidency 
would help to bring about the union of the Free State and the Trans- 
vaal. People argued that the double dignity given to one man was 
wrong, while the advantages of the union would be mostly in favor of 
the Free State. 

Mr. Pretorius resigned the presidency of the Transvaal. But his 
friends held a mass meeting when it was decided that Pretorius was 
president of the Transvaal and that he should have a year's leave of ab- 
sence in order to bring about the union with the Free State. Stephanus 
Schoeman was to act as president during the absence of Pretorius. Mr. 
Schoeman assumed office at once, though his election was a clever polit- 
ical trick, the people being scarcely represented. 

Schoeman, who was thought to be a friend of the president, got 
armed protection against the protests against his assuming office, and 
had a court try for sedition those who had dissolved the council which 
was considered beneath the confidence of the people who had elected 
Pretorius president of the two republics. 

These proceedings led to war throughout the republic. Schoeman 
assembled an armed force to support him. 

Whereupon, Commandant Paul Kruger, of Rustenburg, called out 
the burghers of his district and marched to Pretoria in order to drive out 
Schoeman and establish a better form of government. A new volks- 
raad was elected, a new acting president appointed, and for several 
months there were two rival governments in the Transvaal. Schoe- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



69 



man determined to rule the country. Such a grave state of anarchy 
prevailed that Kruger made up his mind to put it down with a strong 
hand. 1 

And just here it may be in place to say a little about Paul Kruger. 
It is almost impossible to get any particulars about his youth, for 
Kruger has always been a reticent man. In 171 3 the name of 
Kruger appears in the records of the Dutch East India Company. 
From that time on the family has occupied a prominent position in the 
affairs of South Africa. Paul, of course, is the foremost one of his 
family. 

Stephanus Paulus Johannes Kruger was born at Colesburg on the 
10th of October, 1825. His mother died when he was very young, and 
before the trek when he accompanied his father out into the wilds. Pie 
was always courageous and in the possession of great physical strength. 
From the first he enjoyed the esteem of his fellow burghers, and at the 
age of seventeen he was assistant field-cornet of the district in which 
he lived, becoming field-cornet, or local magistrate and chief military 
officer at twenty. A strong religious feeling always was his, and when 
he was twenty-five this religious feeling drove him into the deep wilder- 
ness where he disappeared for awhile, returning to active life again a 
man with deep and earnest convictions. He was an old man when the 
late war of 1899 and 1900 was waged, and he was then as he had always 
been, strong, self-reliant and religious, enjoying the respect and affec- 
tion of his people, "the old lion of South Africa," because of his brav- 
ery; "Oom Paul," because of the love the people bore him, their 
"Uncle." 

This was the man, then, who determined to take a hand when 
Schoeman persisted in his efforts to rule the country. 

A conference was arranged over which President Pretorius pre- 
sided, and a new Volksraad was elected, while Schoeman was dismissed 



70 THE STORY OF 

as Acting President. Schoeman refused to go out of office and was 
supported by a strong party of adherents. 

Paul Kruger drove Schoeman and his party out of Pretoria. 
Schoeman retired to Potchefstroom, where Kruger followed him, and 
after two days of waiting, Schoeman made an attack and was driven 
into the Free State, leaving Commandant Kruger in possession of 
. Pothchefstroom. No sooner, however, had Kruger left the place than 
Schoeman returned and gathered his followers around him and prepared 
to fight it out. At this point President Pretorius again acted as med- 
iator, and an agreement was reached by which active hostilities were 
prevented, though Schoeman kept up the agitation and Kruger called 
on the burghers to help him establish order, and Schoeman and his fol- 
lowers took advantage of a heavy thunder shower to escape, and his 
power was over. 

New elections were held, and Janse Van Resenburg was chosen 
president over Pretorius, while Paul Kruger was made Commandant 
General. p 

But the trials of the Transvaal were not over. Pretending that the 
elections had been illegal there was a revolt of a dissatisfied part of the 
people. Paul Kruger was on hand, and on the 5th of January, 1864, a 
battle was fought in which Viljoen, the leader of the revolt was defeated. 

Once more Pretorius offered to mediate, and another election was 
held, when Pretorius was chosen president by a large majority. With 
Pretorius as president and Paul Kruger for Commandant General, the 
government was of such harmony and power that open rebellion on the 
part of the discontented burghers was hindered. 

But though the civil war was ended, the injury to the government 
was great, for England said that affairs were tottering and that the 
British should establish a more durable form of administration. The 
treasury was nearly empty, taxes were not paid, salaries of the officials 



SOUTH AFRICA. 73 

were in arrears. And worse than all, the republic had lost the confi- 
dence of other nations, for its frequent quarrels with its people made it 
appear anything but a steady government. Even the Orange Free 
State did not desire union with it now, but preferred to stand alone and 
take the threatenings of the Basutos rather than be joined with a coun- 
try where peaceful government seemed at an end. 

To make matters worse, the colored tribes arose. The anarchy at 
home had made it impossible to attend to the Zulus who did not respect 
the boundaries on the land set by the whites, and there were constant 
disputes as to ownership. 

Negotiations were necessary, and Paul Kruger, as Commandant 
General, took a prominent part in the matter. Lines were agreed upon, 
settling the boundaries of land belonging to the whites and the native 
blacks, and were marked down. 

A leading spirit among the Zulus was Cetawayo, a chief of remark- 
able keenness and power. Less than two months after the marking of 
the boundaries in the southern portion of the Transvaal, Cetawayo 
found some pretext for throwing up his bargain, and appeared on the 
borders of Utrecht with a Zulu army and removed the boundaries set up 
only a few weeks before. Of course some negotiations had to be gone 
over again, and a small region in the district of Zululand was given to the 
blacks. This was a season of constant struggle with the blacks, some of 
whom had accepted the rule of the government, while others were in- 
dependent — and upon these independent ones cruel wars descended. 
Terrible atrocities were committed on both sides; the Kaffirs slaugh- 
tered without mercy the white families they found in a defenceless state, 
while the Africanders showed no mercy to the savages they encoun- 
tered. The whites could always defeat the natives when there was a 
pitched battle, but it was beyond their power to hold the vast numbers 
of blacks in subjection. 



74 



THE STORY OF 



With all this, there was a growing dislike for Pretorius because he 
had (1869) awarded the diamond fields to Nicholas Waterboer instead 
of to the Transvaal Republic. So he was forced to resign the presidency 
in 1872, and Mr. Burgers, a native of Cape Colony, who had formerly 
been a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, was elected in his 
place. He was learned and eloquent and possessed much energy, but 
he was not a good business man, and the burghers distrusted him be- 
cause of his religious opinions. Some of them said he insisted that 
the real devil was not like the pictures of Satan in the old Dutch Bibles, 
because he had no tail. For this and worse forms of opinions differing 
from those around him, Mr. Burgers was blamed as the cause of many 
disasters experienced by the nation while he was in office. The same 
old story of discontent and dissatisfaction appears again, the people were 
weak in numbers, the treasury was poor, there was always conflict with 
the savage blacks — and they did not trust the President. 

In 1876, when we at home were celebrating the first hundred years 
of our republic which held together in prosperity and pride, even though 
a sad civil war had for a time threatened to break the Union into two, 
the signs of coming calamity were multiplied among the Africanders in 
their republic. 

In a war with Sikukuni, a powerful Kaffir chief with unlimited 
power in the mountain district to the northeast, the Africanders were 
defeated so completely that they returned to their homes disheartened 
and in confusion. Their border on the southeast was threatened by 
Cetawayo, who appeared very much inclined to make an attack on the 
whites. 

If two such chiefs as Sikukuni and Cetawayo joined forces 
against the Africanders and succeeded in fighting their way over the 
frontiers in the Transvaal Republic, nothing could stop their moving in 
all their strength of numbers against the Free State on the south, Natal 



SOUTH AFRICA. *5 

on the southeast, and even against Cape Colony itself. The Africanders 
were not equal to the situation, and the British government was com- 
pelled to try to avert the threatened war. 

There were two ways of doing this — to take the field as the friend of 
the Transvaal Republic against a common danger, or by annexing the 
Transvaal territory and turning it into a British colony. After three 
months spent in studying the situation, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who 
had been appointed imperial commissioner to visit the scene of danger, 
declared the Transvaal annexed for protection to the British dominions 
in South Africa. In 1879 the territory was declared a crown colony of 
Great Britain. This is the third contact of Boer and Briton — an inde- 
pendent republic was reduced to the position of a crown colony without 
the formal consent of the people, and in spite of their protests. 

Mr. Burgers had not the strength required for a president of a 
troublesome republic. Had Paul Kruger been president at the time, 
much of the history of South Africa would have been changed. For 
though he is a narrow man in many things, Kruger has always been a 
strong one, and difficulty has never discouraged him. 

Kruger protested against the annexation, as did the Volksraad and 
the executive council. But the mass of the people made no resistance 
at the time, though a little later a majority of them signed a petition 
asking that their country be made free again. But they were too late, 
and the territory had passed out of their control. Their wish at first had 
been to be relieved of the fears that were weighing them down and a 
sense of relief in knowing that the Kaffir invasion that threatened their 
very lives would be staved off by the military power of Great Britain, 
though they had paid dear for their sensation of safety — their country 
had passed from them and they were now regarded as British subjects, a 
position against which they had so long rebelled and suffered so much 
rather than to accept. 



76 THE STORY OF 

After the annexation there was at first a good promise of peace, for 
a number of the Africanders, who were officials, retained their positions ; 
British money flowed into the treasury and the way seemed easy before 
them, though their country was theirs no more. 

But all was not to be happiness ; the rule they had expected was not 
for the Africanders. A number of what were called "mistakes" were 
made. The first of these mistakes was the early recall of Sir Theophilus 
Shepstone who had so well managed the bloodless though harsh annex- 
ation, who knew the country and the people and was much liked. In 
his place came Sir Bartle Frere as Governor of Cape Colony and British 
High Commissioner for South Africa. With him was Sir William 
Owen Lanyon, as Governor of the Transvaal, a man not disposed to ex- 
cuse the rudeness of the Transvaal farmers and who refused to be con- 
sidered as one of themselves. He had a very dark complexion, and this 
was also against him in the eyes of the ruder people, for it suggested that 
possibly there was black blood in him, and this was an unpardonable 
blemish according to them. He did not mind the complaints of the 
people ; taxes were levied and if they could not be collected, people were 
turned out of their property, and the discontent broke out again. 

The second mistake was the failure to give the people local self- 
government of their own choice ; everything was arranged for them and 
they were expected to have nothing to say. 

The most serious mistake of all was this : The Africanders had ac- 
cepted annexation largely through fear of the Zulus. The British at 
once overthrew the Zulu power and the people felt that much of their 
fear had been groundless, or else that the crown government regarded 
them as cowards. 

In the northeast Sir Garnet Wolseley defeated Sikukuni, and Sir 
Bartle Frere routed Cetawayo in the southeast, and the Zulus were 
conquered, and the Africanders wondered why they had been so hasty 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



79 



in giving up their territory. Then came news that in England, as in 
South Africa, people called the annexation a shameful proceeding, and 
this raised hopes in the Africanders that much of England sympathized 
with them and that in a little while what they called a wrong would be 
righted. 

But in 1880 other news came that the crown ministers in England 
declared the annexation should stand, and the Africanders rose. A 
mass meeting was held at Paardekraal at which it was resolved to take 
up arms. Kruger had been active all this time, but he could do little. It 
was he who suggested the mass meeting. It was plain to a man of his in- 
telligence that the people who had been patient for three years would be 
patient no more when advantage was taken of them and their helpless- 
ness. In fact, he knew the people could no longer be restrained, and 
the mass meeting was in order. There could be no mistake in the feel- 
ing of the people at that meeting. Stern, forbidding, many with their 
Bibles in their pockets, they came along the roads to Paardekraal that 
day in December. No less than six hundred wagons were on the 
ground ; between eight and nine thousand men were present. 

Pretorius, Paul Kruger and Joubert were elected to proclaim the 
re-establishment of their former government as the South African Re- 
public. On the 1 6th of December the leaders of the movement, ac- 
companied by a considerable force of burghers, arrived in Heidelberg, 
where they took possession. The next day news came that a small rec- 
onnoitreing party of burghers in the neighborhood of Potchefstroom 
had been fired on by British troops, hostilities thus beginning before 
the Africanders had time to communicate with the government at Pre- 
toria. Mr. Joubert, afterward General Joubert, declared that he should 
at once order a return to Paardekraal. Mr. Kruger said that as for 
himself, he knew why he had come to Heidelberg and he meant to re 
main there. 



8o 



THE STORY OF 



If the burghers had returned to Paardekraal the British would have 
allowed them to go on talking for two or three weeks, and then suddenly 
told them what they must do, and an armed force would have backed the 
advice. But no, the time for waiting was gone by ; the time for action 
had come. 

The nearest British troops, besides those already in the Transvaal, 
were in Natal. General Sir George Colley, the Governor of Natal, 
raised all the soldiers he could and marched northward to put down the 
uprising. But before he could enter the Transvaal, Commandant Gen- 
eral Joubert crossed the border into Natal, and took up a strong position 
at Laing's Nek. 

This now historic spot is a very steep ridge between the Klip River, 
which is a tributary of the Vaal, and the Buaffalo River, a part of the Tu- 
gela, which flows into the Indian ocean. 

Here a bloody battle was fought on the 28th of January, 1881. The 
British attacked the Africanders with great bravery, but they could not 
dislodge Joubert. The ridge protected Joubert's men from the British 
fire, while they, in charging up the ridge, were cut down by the practiced 
rifle aim of the Africanders, and forced to retire. At night in their 
camps the British could see the light of the Africander's camp reflected 
in the sky, almost as it might have been the pillar of. fire that guided a 
chosen people, while their ears were filled with the hymns of the burgh- 
ers under Joubert as they entered into their devotions and prayers for a 
cause which they considered right. On the 8th of February, in the 
same neighborhood, there was another fight, and the British were again 
defeated after suffering much loss. 

General Colley, commanding the British, now decided to seize by 
night Majuba Hill, a mountain rising 2000 feet above Laing's Nek. He 
wanted the hill for artillery firing into the Africanders below. On the 
night of February 26th, leaving the main body of his troops in camp, the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



81 



General led a division to the top of Majuba Hill. Strangely enough he 
neglected to order the main body to advance and so divert the attention 
of the Africanders. 

The burghers did not see the English division till it was on Majuba 
Hill. They were at first thrown into dismay. But when they found 
there was no advance on them in front, and no artillery fire from the top 
of the hill, they sent out a party to storm Majuba. 

The story of that charge has gone into history to stay. On the 
one side were the rugged Africanders with magnificent courage, who 
achieved victory; on the other, the British with as much bravery and 
courage, brought by some one's blunder into defeat and disaster. Why 
the main body of the British troops were not ordered into the fight, why 
there were no intrenchments on the hill, and why the order of "charge 
bayonets" was not given, General Colley, a brave man, never lived to 
tell. 

Up the hill went the Africanders, shooting as they ran, protected 
by the steep rocks above them — up they went to the hill top, carrying 
everything before them, a terrible force that meant destruction and 
death. General Colley and ninety-two of his men were killed, and fifty- 
nine were taken prisoners. 

But additional British troops were hastening to the scene of con- 
flict. They were under the command of Sir Evelyn Wood. It is diffi- 
cult to tell what would have been the outcome had further hostilities 
gone on, but before Sir Evelyn Wood could strike a blow the home gov- 
ernment (March 5th) ordered an armistice, and (the 23d of March) 
agreed to terms of peace. By these terms the Transvaal was restored to 
its former independence, save that it was to be under the supervision of 
the British crown. 

Mr. Kruger was uneasy about this armistice ; he feared it was only 
another device to gain time for the arrival of a large British force. 



82 



THE STORY OF 



This impression was also shared by the burghers, for the Africanders had 
no faith in the English. 

However, the armistice in a way acknowledged the independence 
of the Transvaal, while the British seemed anxious for peace. Some- 
thing had been gained, for when they rose against the British govern- 
ment their cause seemed almost hopeless. 

Mr. Kruger, accompanied by the State Attorney, Doctor Jorissen, 
set out for Laing's Nek from Heidelberg. There was delay in reaching 
Laing's Nek ; the weather, as frequently happens toward the end of the 
Transvaal summer, was wretchedly bad, while the journey was rendered 
longer because the village of Standerton was in possession of the Brit- 
ish, and it was necessary to go round it at a distance. It was not until 
the 14th of March that Mr. Kruger reached Laing's Nek. It is not 
necessary to say that he met with an enthusiastic reception. 

The treaty that was signed agreed that the Transvaal government 
should be independent in the management of its internal affairs ; that the 
republic should respect the independence of the Swazies, a tribe of na- 
tives on the eastern border of the Transvaal ; that British troops should 
be allowed to pass through the republic in time of war ; and that the 
British sovereign should be acknowledged as supervisor of the republic 
and have the right to veto treaties between the government of the 
Transvaal and foreign nations. 

Several of the stipulations in this convention were distasteful to 
Paul Kruger and other leaders in the Transvaal, and also to the Volks- 
raad. But a desired end had been gained. Seven Jiundred burghers 
had, three months earlier, ridden down from Heidelberg to protect the 
frontier. Four thousand, for so greatly had the force increased, now 
rode away to their homes, leaving Laing's Nek to silence. Very likely 
the English had considered themselves generous in the terms of the con- 
vention; they could have held on to the Transvaal if force were taken 



SOUTH AFRICA. 83 

into account, but they had done a generous act and they hoped it would 
be appreciated by those who were benefitted. 

It must, however, be admitted that events belied their hopes. They 
expected the Transvaal people to see in this generosity an example of 
humanity which was willing to let vengeance for the defeat, the dis- 
graceful defeat of Majuba Hill, go. 

The Boers, however, saw neither generosity nor humanity in this. 
They saw fear, fear of a people whose wrongs had made them desper- 
ate. Rejoicing in their victories and (like the Kaffirs in the south coast 
wars) not realizing the tremendous force which might have been 
brought to bear on them, they felt they could add contempt to the dis- 
like they already cherished toward the English. 

On the other hand, the English in South Africa continued to resent 
the granting of independence to the Transvaal. 

Much time has been spent in detailing these events connected with 
the declaration of peace with the Transvaal, because, next to the great 
trek of 1836, they are the most important in the inner history of South 
Africa, and those which most affected the political situation leading to 
the war which began in October, 1899. 

The South African Republic, then, came from its brief but success- 
ful struggle for independence poor and in a state of political confusion, 
but rejoicing in a sense of national freedom, and more than ever sure 
that it was favored of Heaven. 

The old constitution was revived, the Volksraad was convoked, and 
an election was held. The young and old took part in this election. 
There was to be no repetition of the mistakes of former years ; the re- 
gained freedom of the republic must not again be put in peril by the 
weakness or unpopularity of a man chosen as the chief representative. 
The republic was to go on to greatness and to glory ; it was all very well 
to sing hymns and invoke the aid of Providence, but Providence gave 



84 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

common sense, and common sense must be brought into play now as it 
had never been done before. The choice of a president must be made, 
and of such a man as would be a tower of strength, a man of strong will, 
a man who was one of themselves, who had suffered with them, who had 
been of service to them and would be of still further service. He must 
be a godly man, a man of war who also loved peace, but a man who had 
the ferocity of a roused lion when the time for such ferocity came, and 
who could yet have the simplicity of the lamb when in time of peace 
the vine and fig tree should be pleasant in the land. He must be a man 
able to meet the savage tribes with tact and determination, one who 
knew the British mind and its resources, and be capable of seeing to the 
bottom of things, not liable to be deceived by promises never meant to 
be kept, but who demanded the carrying out of every promise that was 
made, and yet who would not be so revengeful as to be an unfair enemy 
— a man of war, a man of the Lord, a man learned in men if not too 
much learned in books, and one who first of all had the republic at 
heart. 

Could such a man be found? Thousands of voices answered that 
he could, that he was at hand, their friend, their brother. And this man 
was Stephanus Paulus Johannes Kruger, and he was made president. 
Mr. Kruger immediately planned for bold and far-reaching acts that 
were to affect three sides of the republic's territory. 



CHAPTER V. 

British seize Bechuanaland— Lo Bengula— Gold discovered— Rush of speculators- 
Diamonds discovered— Kimberley diamond fields— The Rand gold mines— Cecil 
Rhodes premier— British plan to take Swaziland— Marquis of Ripon and Mr. 
Chamberlain— Rate war— President Kruger's stand in the matter— Complaints of 
Uitlanders against the republic. 

HE occupation of Mashonaland, a great trek to the north 
was planned, but it was never carried out. Though to 
the south Zululand being open, a number of adventurers 
went there, followed a little later by others who at once 
took service under one of the warring chiefs. These 
people took steps to form a government of their own in the northern dis- 
tricts of Zululand, when the British authorities interfered and restricted 
their claim of land to a small territory three thousand miles square, 
known as the New Republic till 1888, when it was annexed by the 
Transvaal. Other bands of Africanders made raids into portions of 
Bechuanaland, to the west, where they seized territory and intimidated 
the native chiefs, who were not hostile, till the chiefs bowed to their au- 
thority and the raiders established two small republics, Stella and 
Goshen, to the north of Kimberley where the diamond seeking popula- 
tion were not any too orderly.The actions of these new trekkers and 
raiders opened the eyes of the British government to the meaning of the 
South African Republic. They saw that the Africanders meant to claim 
Bechuanaland and close the path of British communication with terri- 
tory far to the north and in which the nation had become interested. 
In order to put a stop to all this a military expedition under Sir 

85 




S6 



THE STORY OF 



Charles Warren entered Bechuanaland and expelled the Africanders, 
though without bloodshed, and proclaimed the whole region a crown 
colony, calling it British Bechuanaland. This territory was afterward 
annexed to Cape Colony. 

In 1885 British rule was established over a still more northerly 
region which covered the whole country as far as the borders of Mata- 
beleland. Three years later the British control was made still more 
secure by entering into an agreement with the King of the Matabele, Lo 
Bengula, by which the king bound himself to make no treaty with any 
foreign nation without the approval of the British High Commissioner. 
Then the British raised their Union Jack at St. Lucia Bay, on the Indian 
ocean, and entered into a treaty with the Tonga tribes there, binding 
the tribes to make no treaties except with the English, and thus com- 
pleted the hold of the British crown on the eastern coast line. 

The Africanders, denied territory on the north, roused themselves 
and claimed Swaziland, to the east of the Transvaal Republic. This 
was a small but rich region possessing considerable mineral wealth. It 
was inhabited by Kaffirs who were the sworn enemies of the Zulus. 

But the British were not to be outdone. They got the consent of 
three Tonga chiefs who were in control and proclaimed a protectorate 
over the whole piece of territory between Swaziland and the ocean, and 
so access to the sea by the Africanders was stopped. 

All this may seem very dry details, but it is to be hoped that events 
which were to follow will make amends for these recitals. It was a con- 
stant nip and tuck, the Africander against the British, the British against 
any who would oppose their power. The Africanders resolved to have 
access to the sea .at as many points as possible, for exchange of com- 
merce with foreign countries was necessary, and the British were as 
determined that as few sea ports as possible should come into the hands 
of the Africanders who must be made to understand that while they 



SOUTH AFRICA. 87 

called themselves free and independent there was a strong government 
opposed to them and which would check them if it could. 

Between 1867 and 1872 gold had been discovered in several places. 
on the eastern side of the country, but in quantities so small that no one 
attached much importance to the discovery. After 1882, however, the 
ground began to be largely worked for the precious metal. Those who 
had been unsuccessful in the diamond working seemed to rush to the 
gold mines — from all parts of the world they came, as has always been 
the case when gold has been found in appreciable quantities in any one 
section of the earth ; as in our own California, in 1849, an d, uiore recent- 
ly, in the Klondike. Men who had lived their lives behind desks poring 
over books, students, disappointed men in all stations of life from the 
clergyman to the banker, the college professor, to the mechanic, the in- 
born adventurer, and the tramp appeared in South Africa ready to use 
pick and shovel if only the earth would give in return the yellow dust for 
which they had come. 

A new civilization appeared on the land, as in the diamond 
fields, a population who seemed to have left all the gentler instincts of 
life behind them, a shanty population, reckless, drinkers, gamblers, 
thieves, along with the earnest toilers who deprived of a means of living 
in their own country came from thousands of miles away to try the game 
with fortune. In 1895 the number of recent emigrants, mostly male 
adults, had risen to a number much greater than that of the whole Boer 
population including women and children. Although the first working 
of the gold mines and the growth of the towns had swelled the revenues 
of the previously impoverished Republic, President Kruger and the 
Boers generally were alarmed at seeing the tide of foreigners from the 
colonies, from Europe, from the United States, most of them British 
subjects and nearly all of them speaking the English language, rise up 
and threaten to submerge the Africanders. 



88 THE STORY OF 

Laws were passed which kept out the new comers as far as possible, 
making the native Boer element a safe majority. The new comers com- 
plained and threatened. Then the British High Commissioner, who 
had come to the Cape to negotiate with President Kruger about Swaz- 
iland, led to a demonstration in favor of the British and against the 
Boers in Pretoria, while feeling ran high in the mining districts. 

The Foreigners' Reform Association, sometimes called the Na- 
tional Union, was formed. Its professed object was to secure redress 
of grievances. This is always allowable in a free country. The aliens 
felt that there was no reason in the world why South Africa should not 
become the home of men of all nationalities, who while finding new 
openings in life were content to live under the laws of the Republic. 

But these foreigners had not been fair to the Africanders. They 
invented gold properties, any piece of land or swamp that stood within 
a reasonable line of the main reef they made the means of a prospective 
letting people in on the "ground floor" — that is, they got a large num- 
ber of shares of stock in a mine at a small price, and unloaded it at a 
large price upon the people. Johannesburg was largely the seat of 
operations, and things there reached a critical state. President Kruger 
went there to see how matters stood. He went in a friendly spirit, in a 
spirit of fairness to all concerned. 

The foreigners there celebrated his arrival by drinking to excess, 
and sang "God save the Queen" as a fitting song with which to welcome 
the President of the South African Republic, and tore down the national 
flag of the Transvaal from in front of the house in which a conference 
was to be held to try to make peace among all concerned. Cer- 
tainly President Kruger was very moderate while he was thus insulted ; 
he attributed the offensive proceedings to "too much drink," but the 
people and their representatives were very bitter against the offenders 



SOUTH AFRICA. 89 

and the result was unfavorable to the carrying out of any measures for 
the benefit of the foreigners. 

But the president wished to deal as liberally as he could with the 
new comers. He was instrumental in advancing measures for the con- 
struction of railways, for amending the existing gold laws, and the be- 
ginning of legislation by which the strangers within the gates of the Re- 
public might have a political interest in the country. Though the 
Volksraad opposed the idea of letting the new comers have anything 
to do with the government of South Africa, for though their coming had 
lifted the Republic out of poverty and made it known as a success 
throughout the world, they might as well be regarded as mere visitors 
and not settlers in any sense of the word. The Africanders were al- 
ways jealous of interlopers, fearing that unfair ideas lurked in their 
heads and that at any time they might go over to the British and ally 
themselves with the constitutional enemy of the Boer. 

Yet matters were tided over and new friendliness and confidence 
sprang up between the foreigners and the republic. 

Kimberley at that time and for some years back had been giving 
out diamonds till it seemed there would be no end of them. Many 
thousands of adventurers had rushed there, and the mines were owned 
by a large number of persons and companies. The competition of these 
mine owners was bringing down the price of stones, while the black 
natives who were working in the mines were stealing the stones and sell- 
ing them and so reducing the profits of mining. It was seen that the 
various concerns would save much by consolidating. This was done 
successfully and largely through the efforts of Mr. Cecil Rhodes who 
had gone to Natal in 1870 because of ill health and had come up to 
Kimberley in the first rush after diamonds. By the means adopted, the 
price of diamonds was kept up and many thefts prevented. Kimberley 
became a place of much comfort. The old rough roads were well 



90 



THE STORY OF 



paved, beautiful villas embowered in groves of tall Australian gum trees 
rose in the air, while the streets and roads were bordered by gum trees 
or by hedges of prickly pear or agave. 

For the residence of the Europeans employed in the great mines, 
a suburb called Kenilworth was built by Mr. Rhodes, where neat houses 
of four or five rooms stand in beautiful avenues planted with "beef wood" 
trees and red gum. These trees have the merit of growing very fast, 
which is much to be desired in a country where shade is welcome. 

The diamonds were found in beds of clay. This clay is supposed 
to be the remains of mud pits caused by volcanic disturbances, such as 
caused the boiling mud pits of Yellowstone Park which are called, be- 
cause of their brilliant color, the "paint pots." 

The diamonds, then, came from circular mud basins enclosed with- 
in a harder rock. Some of the mines are worked to a depth of 1200 feet 
by shafts and under ground galleries. Some were open, and that one 
called the Wesselton mine was a particularly interesting sight. This 
deep hollow was a hundred feet deep, and a third of a mile in circumfer- 
ence. It was enclosed by a fence of barbed wire and filled by a swarm 
of Kaffir workmen, cleaving the earth with pickaxes and piling it up on 
barrows and carrying it off to the wide fields where it was left exposed 
to the sun and rain for three months. It was thus decomposed and 
more easily broken into smaller fragments before going to the mills, for 
the "clay" was not clay as we know it, but beneath the softer earth was 
a hard blue clay covered with a rocky substance which was very hard 
and in which the diamonds were imbedded. In the mills this "clay" 
was crushed and washed to get at the stones. In Kimberley you may 
be pointed out a piece of ground only a few acres in extent and told that 
out of it diamonds to the value of sixty million dollars have been taken. 

The mines were worked on what are called eight hour shifts, that is, 
the workmen were never under ground more than eight hours at a time. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 91 

Every entrance to the mine was guarded and no visitors were permitted. 
To encourage honesty among the workmen ten per cent, of the value of 
a stone any workman might find was given to him if he brought the 
stone to the overseer. The value of the stones on which this ten per 
cent, was paid was estimated at two million dollars a year. When the 
native workman earned the sum he wanted (and his wants were few, and 
his earnings about eight dollars a week) he went home to his own tribe, 
bought two oxen, which he exchanged for a wife, and lived happily ever 
after. Many stories come from the diamond mines to the gold mines 
where everything seemed to be going on swimmingly for awhile after 
Mr. Kruger's exertions had been rewarded with peace between the 
Boers and the newcomers who searched for the hidden gold. 

Near the Rand gold mining district is a long line of mines both east 
and west of Johannesburg, though gold has long been found in many 
other parts of the country. But the Johannesburg mine district is more 
important just now, as it largely led to the second war between the Bri- 
tain and the Boer. 

The distance of these mines, then, is about forty-six miles long, 
though, as Mr. Hammond in the "North American Review" says, "Gold 
does not occur continuously in payable quantities over that extent, the 
'pay ore' being found in irregular patches." There are also a few other 
mines near by. 

On this line are two principal reefs, the Main Reef and the Smith 
Reef. "Reef" means a bed of rock, and these reefs are masses of sandy 
and clayey material containing quartz pebbles. These pebbles are 
mostly small, from the size of a sparrow's egg up to that of a goose egg, 
and do not contain gold. The clay in which they are imbedded is very 
hard and strongly filled with iron which binds it together. It is in this 
stuff, so like cement, that the gold is found. The Boers call this cement 
and pebbles "banket," that being a name for a sort of candy, because 



92 



THE STORY OF 



the pebbles lying in the cement are like almonds in candied sugar. The 
gold is sometimes in the form of crystals so small as to be unseen by the 
naked eye, and sometimes in flakes. The banket has in it thin veins of 
quartz rock in which are sometimes found small gold nuggets. The 
mines are 2400 feet deep, and engineers think they may be sunk to 5000 
feet, though when the temperature is more than a hundred degress, 
which it reaches at 3000 feet, labor becomes difficult. 

California up to 1896 had produced $1,282,000,000; the mines in 
South Africa when they have been operated as long as those in California 
will, it is estimated, have given up $3,500,000,000. 

In general respect Johannesburg comes very near in appearance to 
one of the mining districts to the far west in our own country. Though 
in many ways it is more English than American, and more English than 
Dutch. For in Johannesburg there is little to remind a traveller that 
he is in a Dutch country, unless it is in the names of the streets. The 
population generally use the English language, for with the recent im- 
migrants from Great Britain came Australians and Americans. It is a 
busy, pleasure loving town, making money fast and spending it as rap- 
idly, the fever of mining speculation in every mind. 

The people have a passion for sport, though the gambling saloon 
is less conspicuous than in some of our own gold and silver mining dis- 
tricts, and there are fewer breaches of the peace. Perhaps the country 
being so far from Europe and its under classes the roughs are compar- 
atively few, while the educated men are many. The best society of the 
place is not very large in numbers. It consists of men of English or 
Anglo-Jewish race and includes the Cape Colonists and Americans, with 
a few Germans. There are hardly any Boers or Hollanders, except 
those employed in official capacity by the government. Though there 
are many Kaffirs, few are to be seen about the streets. The Boer farm- 
ers every morning drive in their wagons rilled with fresh vegetables, but 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



93 



there are so few of the South African Republic citizens in this, the larg- 
est town of the Republic, that a traveller can scarcely realize that he is 
in the country of the Africander when he traverses its streets. The 
Uitlanders, as the strangers were called that came in with the gold fever, 
settled largely in Johannesburg and the Boers had little to do with them 
except to sell them vegetables and milk. 

With all the apparent peace existing in Johannesburg in 1895, both 
the burghers and the aliens suddenly awoke to the fact that the govern- 
ment of the Republic and the English government were not friendly, 
and that demands were being made by the British which the Boers did 
not feel like meeting. 

Cecil Rhodes had been made Premier of the Cape Colony. This 
made him practically the English agent in all of South Africa. Mr. 
Rhodes was largely interested in the mines and he feared that the Trans- 
vaal was passing out of the control of the British. The British authori- 
ties suddenly annexed the Tongaland territory through which the Afri- 
canders had secured a concession to build a railway to the sea. This 
annexation created the impression that the English government in this 
case was as usual unfriendly to the South African Republic. It also be- 
came known that steps were being taken in Natal to organize a police 
force to occupy Swaziland. 

But Mr. Rhodes did not think of the gold mines alone, if at all, in 
the demands he now made. This was that the Transvaal should enter 
into the union between the Cape Colony and the Free State. If this 
demand had been acceded to, Natal would have had no free trade and 
would have been compelled to make a higher tariff. It would then not 
have had the Johannesburg trade and the cost of living would have been 
greatly increased. 

The Transvaal government refused to comply with the demand. 
This gained for it the ill will of Mr. Rhodes. Orders were given by the 



94 THE STORY OF 

English to enroll a volunteer police force, with Doctor Jameson at the 
head. 

Sir John Willoughby, speaking for his superior, Doctor Jameson, 
assured the men that they would only be required to serve in a "camp of 
exercise" once a year, and that they would not be taken beyond the bor- 
ders of Rhodesia. 

Then matters settled down for a little while, as matters seem to have 
been forever settling down in South Africa where the Boers appear to 
have adopted a policy of waiting from the first, whether from prejudice 
not to be the first to act, or because they always wished for peace, and 
hoped that by waiting their constant aggressors would see their wrong 
and as time passed would become more pacific. 

But as the year 1895 advanced it became more and more apparent 
to those who watched the situation that some decisive step was about to 
be taken against the independence of the South African Republic. 

The newspapers both in Cape Town and Johannesburg, that were 
run in the interests of Mr. Rhodes, grew more threatening. There were 
festivities in July to celebrate the opening of the Delagoa Bay railway; 
it afforded an opportunity for the exchange of civilities between the var- 
ious South African governments, as well as between the government at 
Pretoria and the English Colonial Office, which had been presided over 
by a courteous and experienced statesman, the Marquis of Ripon. Un- 
fortunately the time of the festivities was the same time that saw a 
change of ministry in London, and in place of the Marquis of Ripon, Mr. 
Chamberlain was appointed to the Colonial Office. Mr. Chamberlain 
was impetuous and easily angered. He considered that the Transvaal 
had been treated too leniently and agreed with Mr. Rhodes' policy of 
oppression — England ought to rule South Africa in its own way, and 
the Africander was a constant source of trouble to the English govern- 
ment that had done so much for it. It seems almost impossible to be- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 97 

lieve that so small a matter as the closing of a ford or ''drift" across the 
Vaal River should have been made the subject of international dispute. 
But it was so. 

In a rate war (such as is constantly going on in our own country 
and which excites little comment and surely as little ill will) between the 
Cape Government Railway and the Transvaal Railway, the Cape, or 
English, authorities, began to unload freight on the south side of the 
Vaal, or Free State ground, and afterwards sent it by ox teams across 
the "drift," thus getting it over more than fifty miles to Johannesburg. 
This was done to deprive the Transvaal Railway from carrying freight 
from the border to Johannesburg unless it submitted to certain lower 
rates. The Transvaal Railway promptly declared that the "drift" was 
closed to traffic, so as to protect itself. 

This act was printed in the London papers as the "drift question" 
and seemed to rouse the anger of the entire British nation, when in fact 
it was a mere squabble such as any of our home railways might engage in 
when one company uses the tracks of another company for their own 
purposes, and which squabbles are entered into and settled every year by 
telegraph and telephone, or at best by a civil suit in our courts. 

The fact of its being a mere question of railway rights was nothing 
to those who wished to find some way of involving the English govern- 
dent in a big quarrel with the South African Republic. Mr. Rhodes 
appears to have jumped at the opportunity. Reams of good paper were 
wasted in correspondence and the wise law officers of the crown in Lon- 
don shook their heads and said the Boers were behaving illegally again, 
while Mr. Chamberlain spoke of the general unfriendliness of the 
Transvaal government. 

If there had been any unfriendliness all along I think you, who have 
read this history so far, will agree that it had not been all on the side of 
the Africanders. 



98 THE STORY OF 

But Mr. Rhodes and his ministry decided that here was a climax to 
which all that had gone before led up, and that war was the only thing 
to settle the matter. Once let a war break out and it should prove un- 
favorable for the South African Republic. Things were as England 
wished them to be. There were constant complaints in the papers of 
London and these were echoed in the papers of South Africa which were 
on the side of Mr. Rhodes who, it appears, ruled many of the officials 
under him because they were weaker men than he. 

President Kruger seemed to stand alone. The people of the Or- 
ange Free State had been willing to help the Transvaal in 1881, and in 
that same year the Boers of Cape Colony might have given .aid. But 
Kruger had taxed certain food stuffs and refused to employ Cape Dutch- 
men in the Transvaal service, so now they would have nothing to do 
with his quarrel. It was evident that little help could be looked for 
from the outside upon a matter which from the size of a mole hill had 
grown to the size of a mountain. 

President Kruger felt that he was in the right in assuming that his 
railway had done nothing but what it was privileged to do, and he had 
never shrunk from a responsibility in his life. He loved his people and 
he was doing for them the best that he could. He had had his share 
of hardship, and though he was now a rich man and at an age when 
peace and rest after a troubled life becomes pleasant, he could not see his 
way to owning that he was wrong when he did not believe that such was 
the case. He was stubborn as ever and as strong, the "old lion of South 
Africa." But he was also "Oom Paul," the uncle of his people. 

Those who were most friendly with him argued with him, very 
probably his wife, "Tante Sanna," Aunt Sanna of the people, went to 
him and spoke of the horrors of war wherein his children should fight — 
and for what? 

At all events the Transvaal government, in order to avoid trouble 



SOUTH AFRICA. 99 

over so paltry a matter withdrew the proclamation, and the "drift" was 
open again. Thus the opportunity for a war with the South African 
Republic passed out of Mr. Rhodes' hand. 

But there were other things Mr. Rhodes could do. For a week 
later the chairman of the Johannesburg Chamber of Mines made a bril- 
liant speech, telling how dreadfully the foreign population in the Trans- 
vaal were treated. The gentleman who made this speech was Mr. 
Lionel Phillips. You will see that the quarrel of Mr. Rhodes with the 
South African Republic had now assumed another shape. The object 
was just the same, but the way of getting at it was different. If the Re- 
public could not be overthrown, if the gold fields could not be claimed 
through an open attack from the British government, these things could 
be secured by an insurrection from within — he said the foreigners 
should be protected. To protect these people whom he suddenly grew 
to love so dearly he must have arms and provisions and horses, and he 
must have men and the money to pay them. A great deal of money was 
granted him and in London the people waited with expectation. 

In the interior, at Cape Town, those who complained of ill treat- 
ment were ready to rise against the Transvaal. Some of the subjects of 
ill treatment which so excited the British government appear odd when 
read in cold type. 

A man with a farm on the border had his property declared British 
territory. He sued the Transvaal for damages. Another man sued 
the government for injuries caused by a fall in the street. Another man, 
a British subject, trespassed on the farm of one of the members of the 
Volksraad, and was charged with intent to steal. Another case was that 
of a native who worked for a Boer farmer who promised him cattle if 
he worked for a certain time. When the time expired the farmer re- 
fused to let him go. These and like cases were brought against the 
Transvaal Republic, S. J. P. Kruger, president. 

Uofu 



I00 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

In the first case if the man whose farm was seized for state purposes 
had been in America he would smilingly have gone into the court of his 
native town and received the money for his property, if it had not been 
bought from him previously. The second man, who had fallen in the 
street, in nine cases out of ten would have got up and rubbed his shins 
and gone on whistling. If his shin had been broken, very likely he 
would have sued the city in which he lived for having bad paving and 
the policeman on whose beat the accident had occurred might have 
heard from his lieutenant for not having reported the rooted-up condi- 
tion of the highway. The farmer who refused to pay his farm hand 
and let him go would in the first place have been knocked down by the 
farm hand for offering to detain him, and the farm hand's lawyer would 
have visited the farmer with a polite reminder that it was just as well to 
settle the question of payment of wages or have the harvesting of his 
crop interfered with by an attendance at court which would order the 
discharge of a just debt and payment of the costs of the action by the 
farmer. But these things did not occur in the United States nor in any 
country where law is a settled fact and where responsibilities are rec- 
ognized. They happened in a country whose early settlers had been 
harassed from the first by a foreign power that wanted to take the land 
from them, and the cases came before a man high in authority who 
agreed with his country that the Africanders had few rights which the 
Englishman was bound to respect. 

Of course there were more important cases brought to the notice of 
Mr. Rhodes and cases in which the Africanders were to blame, but that 
the examples cited were held to be important can not be doubted when 
they are included in the charges of ill treatment of foreigners brought to 
bear against the Transvaal Republic, Paul Kruger at its head. 



KIMBERLY DIAMOND MINKS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Plans for Uitlander uprising — Criticisms of President Kruger — Tales at Pretoria of 
proposed uprising — .Restlessness of Boers — Preparations to resist raid — Mrs. 
Kruger — Jameson's raid — Jameson defeated and made prisoner — Condition ol 
Johannesburg — Criticism of raid. 




11 

| Jt ■ |1 S time went on, preparations for the proposed uprising 
i Hf 1 H progressed. Presumably to take part in the making over 
Jig of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Doctor Jameson and 
his police guards came down to the neighborhood of the 
Transvaal. The Africanders knew that an earthquake 
was about to take place, for discontent was now heard 
on all sides. 

Stories against the President were freely circulated. It was said 
that Paul Kruger could very well afford to be president when that 
ofnce guaranteed him $40,000 a year, that he was an ignorant man, 
barely able to write his name, a stubborn bull dog of a man, narrow 
minded, and his religion such as had been the religion of old tyrants, the 
religion of the Old Testament full of revenge, not that of the New Testa- 
ment filled with mercy and tenderness. They said that the man who 
had risen from being a peasant to become president, without taking 
advantages of the results of civilization, was the man that must be con- 
quered, for he still retained his peasant instincts and manners, that he 
had expelled from the country any person not a burgher or compelled 
them to live in certain locations, without any charge being made that 
the person so expelled had broken any law, and that such person could 

103 



mmm 



io 4 THE STORY OF 

not appeal to the courts because of such treatment. This expelling of 
strangers was a breaking of the law which had been agreed upon be- 
tween the English and the Africanders, which said that all persons, other 
than natives, who obeyed the laws were at liberty with their families to 
reside in any part of the South African Republic. Then it was said that 
the South African Republic did not contribute as it should have done to- 
ward education, for the Uitlanders, or strangers, gave three times as 
much as the Boers, while more Boer children were being educated than 
children of the Uitlanders — in other words, $40 were spent on each Boer 
child, while only 45 cents were spent upon each Uitlander child. Then 
there came forward numerous people who told sad tales of abuse at the 
hands of the Boers, and no redress could be had. Then the revenue 
had risen wonderfully, and four-fifths of it were paid by the Uitlanders 
in taxes while they did not have the right to vote and had to put up with 
whatever kind of government the Boers chose to give them. 

At a convention Mr. Kruger had been asked if British subjects were 
on the same footing as the Boers, and he had said they were. Asked if 
they had the same protection, he answered yes. He also said that every 
body in the Republic had the same privileges. 

In 1895 a petition signed by nearly 36,000 Uitlanders was laid be- 
fore the Voksraad asking that they have the right to vote. 

Mr. Lionel Phillips, as has been sard, had made a speech at the 
Johannesburg chamber of mines. In that speech lie declared that there 
was a limit to endurance on the part of the Uitlanders, though they did 
not desire any trouble which should cause bloodshed. 

The manner in which this speech was understood even in Europe 
may be seen by reference to it in a letter quoted in the book, "South 
Africa as it is :" "Master Lionel's speech was very foolish and is likely 
to do a great deal of harm and no good. * * * If there is anything 
likely to put Paul Kruger's back up, it is threats." 



SOUTH AFRICA. 105 

Arms and ammunition continued to come to Johannesburg con- 
cealed in oil tanks, coal trucks, and the like. 

Then all at once Colonel Rhodes, brother of Cecil Rhodes, at Jo- 
hannesburg, telegraphed to the Cape that a high official, whom he called 
the "chairman," should interfere at the earliest possible moment, for 
Johannesburg was becoming a perfect armament for the Boers, and that 
he and Mr. Cecil Rhodes should start from Cape Town for Johannes- 
burg on the "day of flotation," as the date of the uprising was called. 

This was the way things stood in the Transvaal in November, 1895. 
Visitors hardly reached the hotels at Pretoria before people began to 
tell them that an insurrection was close at hand. In Johannesburg lit- 
tle else was talked about at the club where every body lunches, and be- 
tween the acts at the theatre. Americans who were there thought it 
comical for the English to call themselves downtrodden, that the Boers 
were their oppressors. 

All over South Africa was the same story of an uprising soon to 
occur at Johannesburg. Many people agreed with the English that the 
Boer government was over taxing the Uitlanders, yet refused them the 
benefits a civilized government is bound to give its subjects. 

But there was something to be said for the Boers. They had fled 
from Cape Town sixty years before had suffered perils and triumphed 
over many enemies, had got back their independence through their own 
courage when Great Britain had taken that independence from them. 
They had established a republic according to their own ideas and could 
now keep it their own only by keeping out of their affairs foreigners in 
blood, speech and manners who had recently settled among them. 
They had not wanted these strangers, and all the strangers had come 
for was gold and wealth. Of course they had let the strangers come 
and had allowed them to buy the gold reefs. But the strangers had 
come knowing it was a Boer republic, and many had come as visitors, 



io6 



THE STORY OF 



not meaning to stay after their pockets were filled. Were these strang- 
ers to be allowed to overturn the republic and build up another on its 
ruins which should be theirs? 

This was the state of affairs when the brother of Cecil Rhodes sent 
that telegram speaking of the "day of flotation." 

Many said that the telegram intended to create just enough dis- 
turbance to give a reason for alarming calls for help from the "down 
trodden" English, but not so much positive distress as to force a hand-to- 
hand fight in the streets of Johannesburg between the English and the 
Boers. Doctor Jameson was quite near enough, on the other hand, if it 
came to fighting, for him and his police to take the responsibility, and 
for the High Commissioner, Mr. Rhodes, to come in at the right mo- 
ment and suggest peace if the Boers agreed to a re-establishment of 
British control in the Transvaal. 

The Boers were ready; they have always been ready. They had 
many resources. In fact, so many that the English wondered if their 
own force was sufficient to overthrow the government as it existed. 
The Uitlanders , forces were not very alarming, they had only two or 
three hundred regular troops stationed at Pretoria and said to be not 
very efficient. 

The Africanders on the other hand had a militia of sixteen thous- 
and and more, and included young fellows who had just passed their 
sixteenth year, and all were used to rough life and knew how to shoot. 
As those who favored reform in the government, the Uitlanders knew 
they would be outmatched ; it has been hinted that they meant to take 
Pretoria as soon as possible, capture the president and before the Boer 
militia could assemble, to call for a popular vote of all inhabitants, Boers 
and Uitlanders — the Uitlanders outnumbering the Boers — which vote 
should say how the government should be altered to suit the wishes of 
the majority, which of course would be the Uitlanders. 



SOUTH AFRICA- 107 

But, oddly enough, at the last moment differences of opinion arose 
among the Uitlanders at Johannesburg; they hesitated and were lost 
The project which had been so much talked about — that is, the re-estab- 
lishing of British rule — suddenly became distasteful to many who had 
formerly said they desired it, the principal reason given that the control 
of capital over legislation would not be as full and complete under Brit- 
ish rule as it might still become under some other rule. The English 
recruits had entered service by having the loyalty to the old country 
appealed to, but now they began to see that this sentiment of loyalty car- 
ried out would defeat the aim of those who were capitalists if they over- 
turned the Kruger government. In the early part of December affairs 
had quieted down a little. But by the middle of the month people be- 
gan to become excited again. President Kruger and his officials were 
not to be taken by surprise. They knew that the slight lull that had 
come was only the calm before the storm. The Uitlanders did not like 
the Republican government and yet they could see no other form of 
rule which would benefit them, for the overthrow of the present method 
would make all sorts of trouble and stocks would go down to nothing 
and the rich man might become a pauper. Many who had been fore- 
most in the agitation in the first place, now regretted that they had ever 
said a word against the Boers. But their words had been uttered and 
reached the ears of the British government, and Mr. Rhodes remem- 
bered them in Africa and Mr. Chamberlain remembered them in Lon- 
don. 

Christmas day found those who desired reform in the government 
of Johannesburg so divided in feeling that they wished the whole matter 
dropped until they were certain as to what and for whom they were to 
fight. This indecision reached the police under Doctor Jameson out- 
side Johannesburg. Jameson had been told that he must make no 
move on any account whatever until he received orders to do so. But 



io8 



THE STORY OF 



the men under him were restless and eager for fight. It has never been 
said that an English soldier is not brave, and the old saying that "Eng- 
land expects every man to do his duty," is needlessly given to the soldier 
in the queen's pay. Besides, the conspirators in Johannesburg had 
cooled down, and those who had not undergone that process were unde- 
cided about what they should do in the case of an uprising and alarmed 
at the proportions the quarrel had assumed. Together with this the re- 
ports as to the ease with which the Africanders had obtained the means 
of defending themselves both in men and ammunition, Maxim guns and 
rifles, was irritating to the Britons, who found the Boers ready to re- 
ceive them and maybe enjoying the idea that the Englishmen hesitated 
to make an attack. And President Kruger quietly went on with his 
duties as president, held prayer meetings and attended to domestic 
affairs as usual. He was encouraging "Tante Sanna," his wife, who 
always hated war and feared it, and who saw in fresh hostilities only the 
old troubled life lived over again, this time her sons and her grandsons 
torn from her, maybe never to come back alive. But she had always 
relied upon her husband, she had always accepted fate as inevitable, and 
the president with his stern ideas of right and wrong was doing what he 
thought he must in defending the Republic from a fresh difficulty with 
the old English foe. She had heard her husband called by a variety of 
choice names — rebel, tyrant, pirate, visionary. She had heard him lik- 
ened to Abraham Lincoln, the great American who had liberated so 
many thousands and thousands of slaves, though she knew that 6om 
Paul believed in slavery, though he had the piety and the humor of 
Lincoln; the shrewdness, the earnestness, the fortitude under great 
affliction. She also knew that her husband had great confidence in 
himself, contempt for an easy life, much command over men, and other 
qualities that go to make up greatness in a man. Again, she had heard 
Mr. Kruger compared to Bismarck. Bismarck had made Prussia head 



SOUTH AFRICA. 109 

of United Germany, and her husband might yet make the Transvaal the 
head of a United South Africa that would have nothing to do with the 
English. Her husband was growing old though, his form was bowed 
by years, and she feared for him in war in his old days. The queen ! 
Who was the queen of England? What was she to them? When Vic- 
toria was made a girl queen, Paul Kruger was tramping across the up- 
lands of Africa, pushing ever slowly northward to get away from the 
English. When the Mattabele warriors attacked the immigrants Paul 
Kruger fought, though he was but a boy. But Paul was a good marks- 
man, for he was used to herding in his father's sheep in a land of wild 
beasts, and was expected to bring home game while defending the 
sheep. So he did good service in fighting the Mattabeles, those grue- 
some warriors, from the battle with whom the Boers issued with a loss 
of only two men. Always Paul had fought when it was necessary he 
should fight, and his courage had never been doubted. At sixteen he 
was already Field Cornet of Potchefstroom, and not many years later 
he was commandant. And how strong and masterful he had been 
ever since ! Yes, "Tante Sanna" knew all the good traits of her hus- 
band, the father of his people, who on Sundays all came to the little 
chapel nearby to hear him explain the word of God. But he was an old 
man, and to think of engaging in war in old age ! Well might "Tante 
Sanna" thus commune with herself as to a possible war. For war was 
in the air and about to let fall its thunder bolts upon Johannesburg. 

On the 29th of December, and probably without orders, Doctor 
Jameson rushed upon Johannesburg with his force. There was only 
time for the Africanders to issue orders for an assembly of force to meet 
the invaders. Fears were entertained that besides an attack on the Re- 
public an advance might be made on Pretoria. The news of the invas- 
ion reached Potchefstroom the same time it came to Pretoria. Eighty- 
seven men left Potchefstroom. The orders given to this detachment 



no 



THE STORY OF 



were that it should join Commandant Cronje' s force. This was found 
to be impossible. They took up a position a little west of Krugersdorp. 
On the south side of the road were the Krugersdorp men, on the north 
was another body under Commandant Malan. 

The enemy were in sight. Doctor Jameson opened artillery fire 
on the burghers, which cannonading kept up till four o'clock in the after- 
noon without doing any damage, the burghers obeying orders by lying 
quietly under the rocks and not returning the fire. Then the artillery 
ceased and skirmishers advanced. Then Malan's burghers opened fire, 
their example being followed by those on the south side of the road. 
The attack was checked, Jameson's troopers retreating with some men 
wounded and the loss of many horses. Jameson then brought his Max- 
im guns into play, but without effect. The invaders next attempted to 
get round to the north. But Cronje defeated that attempt. Then Jam- 
eson brought a twelve-pounder into such a position that Malan's men 
could be covered, and then several of the burghers' horses were killed. 
To check this new attack some twenty burghers were ordered to a posi- 
tion a little higher up the road, overlooking the hill, and these succeed- 
ed in silencing the twelve-pounder. 

It was pretty evident that the invading party were not going to 
get in to Johannesburg through Krugersdorp. Jameson's men moved 
away to the south. Cronje followed them with some of his own and 
some of Malan's men. The night came on, wet and miserable, and 
Cronje and his men kept watch. During the night Cronje took his 
son, who had been wounded, to Krugersdorp hospital. During his ab- 
sence some mistake was committed which almost let the invaders get 
round the position. But Cronje ordered his men southward, following 
up Jameson, and by morning headed off the English. Jameson's men 
charged, the bugle sounded and away they went up hill as hard as they 
could go. They got within four hundred yards of the burghers, then 




A NOVEIv FRYING PAN, 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



113 



three hundred yards, then two, then one hundred, and then in front and 
on each side the fire of the burghers broke forth. Some thirty men fell. 
The rest of the English formed and advanced. No use. The second 
charge was as completely repulsed as the first, and the invading force 
drew off. Then something else happened. The burghers had expected 
an attack would be made on Pretoria. This proving unfounded the 
artillery was hurried up to take part in the action. A twelve-pounder 
and a Maxim gun opened fire on the farm where Jameson's men had 
retreated. A faint flutter of white became visible, which at first was not 
clear enough to be seen as a flag of a truce. In a few minutes other 
white flags were displayed. Then firing ceased on both sides. A rapid 
interchange of communication followed, and in a little while, guarded 
by a strong burgher force, Doctor Jameson and his men were prisoners 
in the hands of the Transvaal Republic. And now President Kruger 
showed his shrewdness. He kept the people quiet, so that there was 
no conflict in the streets of Johannesburg. He withdrew all the Trans- 
vaal police from the streets, and there was no exchange of shots between 
them and the Uitlanders to justify a call for outside interference. 

Jameson captured, he and his police, or troops, made prisoners, the 
attempted revolution was at an end. Jameson and his officers were 
sent to England, where they were sentenced to various terms of impris- 
onment. 

The failure of the proposed insurrection proved that it is not so easy 
to make a revolution as might be thought. Says Mr. Bryce, in his 
book, "Impressions of South Africa :" "Of all the insurrections and con- 
spiracies recorded in history, probably not five per cent, have succeeded." 
Though the Boer had succeeded in putting this one insurrection down 
and by very good and effective methods, and there was nothing more to 
do about it. This is the famous raid of Doctor Jameson. Everything 
had depended on his getting into Johannesburg without any force op- 



ii4 THE STORY OF 

posing him. He had come and he had failed. Mr. Rhodes was not 
pleased, for Doctor Jameson had upset the applecart. Guns have not 
all the power of settling a dispute. Mr. Kruger had done it in the neat- 
est and quietest manner, for if no one resisted, how could there be a bat- 
tle? — there had only been a skirmish. But if Mr. Rhodes was not 
pleased, neither was Mr. Chamberlain, away off in London. 

During the few days left of 1895 and the week or so in the opening 
of 1896, there was a state of chaos in Johannesburg, rowdies abounded, 
coming from all directions at once, hearing of the "raid," and property 
and even life, was in danger. The government seemed powerless, and 
was careful how it acted after it had been so recently tempted into a war 
with the English. Shops were closed, the people were uncertain, and 
little business was transacted. But the reform association seems to 
have disappeared, as they were held largely to blame for the state of 
affairs, while the European population at large insisted that they were 
not connected with the situation which had been created. Hordes of 
natives came into the town and drank and caroused, anxious to fight 
Boer and Briton alike, and there were rumors that the savages far off 
were likely to rise, as messengers had flown to tell them that the English 
had possession of Johannesburg, and the tribes had an idea of seeing 
what they themselves could do. 

The state of panic was sustained and made more alarming by the 
most exciting rumors of what Jameson was about to do, rumors of 
thousands of burghers assembling to lay siege to the town, rumors of a 
proposal to bombard the city, rumors of a new government about to be 
proclaimed, rumors of anything and everything which excited fancy 
could suggest. The deepest concern was felt; everybody lived in the 
streets in order to learn any new phase of the situation that might arise. 
These crowds collided with other crowds, roughs, natives, and there 
were fights and no arrests ; houses were forcibly entered, the occupants 



SOUTH AFRICA. 115 

ill treated, and there were no arrests ; people's money and jewels were 
taken from them on the streets in broad daylight, and there were no 
arrests. The police had been ordered into inactivity and the state of 
the public mind was such that an arrest might be construed by the Uit- 
landers as a grievance against their rights and the English try once 
more to be successful in a raid which would have to be met with means 
as carefully carried out as the non-attacking means that had defeated 
Doctor Jameson. Then it leaked out that the principal actors in the 
revolutionary movement had quietly moved their families out of the 
city which was to have been stormed and taken by the English, and 
there was a general stampede. The worst was to be expected when 
those who were foremost in the affair felt insecure. Men and women 
lost their heads and leaving all behind them tried to get out of the 
place that was, maybe, undermined and might be blown up at any 
moment. Houses and all they contained were deserted by their owners 
and immediately looted by the freebooters who had come in with full 
swing and license and who feared no apprehension and arrest. Stores 
were battered open and their contents either confiscated or ruined. 
Men and women fought for places on the outgoing trains, paying any 
price they might be asked, only to get away from a doomed city. In 
one instance an overladen train left the track and forty of the passen- 
gers, mostly women and children, perished. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the misery and tragic effect on 
innocent and peaceable people cause by the checked uprising. 

Then when danger of misunderstanding was passed the authorities 
did what they could to bring order out of disorder. The police went 
into duty again, houses of absent owners were guarded; the shop- 
keepers one by one returned, and the unlawful population that peopled 
the streets was gradually taken out of town and something like peace 
and quiet returned. 



ii6 



THE STORY OF 



But for a time the effect .of the raid was most unfavorable to the 
return of anything like friendly feeling between the Africanders and the 
British. All the world, except England, was in sympathy with the 
Africanders, and the German Emperor cabled to President Kruger con- 
gratulating him on the easy and effective way in which he had put down 
the rebellion. This cablegram was construed as evidence that the 
South African Republic, with President Kruger at the head, was secretly 
conniving at friendship with Germany against Great Britain as the su- 
perior foreign power in South Africa. 

On the other hand the burghers in the Transvaal saw in the con- 
spiracy to raise a rebellion a new evidence of the hostility of the British 
to the independence of the republic, and that the failure to make a rebel- 
lion was only for a time,for that their enemy would, some way or other, 
find means to successfully accomplish their purpose, however unjust and 
violent might be the means they would bring into play. In fact, the 
effect on the burghers by the Raid was something like that of the blow- 
ing up of the Maine on the citizens of the United States. When the 
Maine was blown up, we all felt that relations between Spain and our 
own country were such that nothing but war could settle them. 

President Kruger at last completed order in Johannesburg. But 
the disorder and uneasiness had spread not only through the Transvaal, 
but also to the farther parts of South Africa. The diamond fields, the 
gold mines, the Orange Free state and Cape Colony, had their share of 
feeling that nothing was secure, while as on former occasions of the 
quarrels between the English and the Africanders, the savage tribes, 
that seemed only to wait for such opportunities, were ready to rise in all 
the horrors of their mode of warfare, and try once more to exterminate 
the whites of all nationalities who had taken their land from them and 
driven them to the confines of the most unproductive parts of the terri- 
tories. It used to be the same with our native Indians — when America 




THREE GENERATIONS OF BOERS. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 119 

had a war with a foreign power, the savages would put on their war 
paint, sharpen their tomahawks and bury their peace pipes, preparatory 
to taking a hand in the hostilities and so by torture and death gain a 
sort of revenge on the white races who, one and all, claimed the land 
which moons and moons ago had belonged to the red forefathers of the 
soil. But peace was restored for the time being, business activities 
went on. And notwithstanding the bitterness between the English and 
the Africanders, no one was put to death for taking up arms against the 
Transvaal government, nor was anyone seriously punished. This 
peaceful mode was popular not because there was any doubt of the guilt 
of the accused parties, nor because any extenuating circumstances 
were recognized, but because the British authorities interceded strongly, 
and because the wisdom of Paul Kruger and his government whose ter- 
ritory had been invaded from soil of a professedly friendly nation, told 
them that this was the better and more politic way to act, although they 
had it in their power by all the law of nations to demand the utmost 
penalty on those who had committed the outrage. 

As things turned out, the Jameson Raid had all the appearance of 
an act of foreign aggression, and the world at large sympathized with 
President Kruger. The Raid had been so unfair, so miserable, so 
treacherous, that people put aside the memory of wrongs suffered by 
the Uitlanders. Another effect of the Raid was to create a wide im- 
pression in 1899, when the Uitlander grievances were under discussion, 
that the grievances were largely the result of the Raid, when, as a matter 
of truth, the grievances were the cause of the Raid. 

Another feature of the Raid was that it gave to the Johannesburg 
reform movement the appearance that it was first and last an attempt to 
destroy the independence of the Republic, when in fact the grievances 
had a right to demand reform, though the Raid was a most unfortunate 
method of making the Republic see that it had done anything that was 



120 



THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



wrong. At the time of this Raid we, over in America, had it flashed to us 
across the cable, and most of us rejoiced with the African Republic who 
had, by defeating the insurrection, told the world that it could very well 
take care of itself and needed not Germany nor any other foreign power 
to take its part when it was attacked by the foes within its walls. Our 
papers praised President Kruger and his burghers and more than the 
finding of diamonds at Kimberly, or the discovery of the South African 
veins of gold did the defeat of Jameson make us turn with interest to 
Oom Paul and his people. 







CHAPTER VII. 



Cecil Rhodes and his schemes — Africanders determined on independence — Kruger 
re-elected president — Petition of Uitlanders — Complaints against Transvaal gov- 
ernment—Note of British government — Reply of South African government — 
Chamberlain's famous speech — Shipment of English troops to South Africa — 
Africanders prepare for hostilities. 



better. The country would have gone on to peace between the two 
nations, or races. 

But Mr. Rhodes and his ideas were allowed to remain. His pres- 
ence made final peace in the country impossible. Very likely two-thirds 
of the population of South Africa believed him to be the foremost crim- 
inal in the raid and conspiracy, that he and his methods had brought 
the thing about. His influence was great and it had the effect of in- 
creasing the prejudice, already strong enough, of one race against the 
other, and of warning every Africander in the country to keep armed 
and be ready for anything, for the genius of Mr. Rhodes might at any 
time plunge them into grave difficulties. For the Africanders were 
resolved to defend the independence of their country, and Mr. Rhodes 
threatened that independence by constantly recurring unfriendly acts. 




FTER the conspiracy and raid, the extended peace of South 
Africa and the importance of Great Britain there, depended 
upon a certain line of action. This line of action did not 
go into effect. - Mr. Cecil Rhodes and his schemes were 
very unpopular with the Africanders and if England had 
taken him out of the situation the end would have been 



121 



122 



THE STORY OF 



These Africanders loved freedom as their Holland forefathers had loved 
it when they conquered Spain in the sixteenth century ; they loved it as 
their Huguenot forefathers loved it, who counted no sacrifice too great 
to be made for liberty ; they loved it as we Americans love it, who once 
or twice let England know that love in defending our nation against 
injustice and the desire to encroach upon it. 

The year 1896 saw a temporary lull in the agitations for reform in 
the Transvaal. The English insisted that the Africanders carried ev- 
erything with a high hand and that the native English were oppressed 
in every way. The Africanders said the country was their own and 
would rule it in their own interests and not allow strangers to get the 
upper hand of them. Yet there was no open manifestations of ill will, 
and only grumblings'and the newspapers made a harvest of it. 

President Kruger had always been stubborn; he was now an old 
man and had not grown any the less stubborn. As had been said be- 
fore, threats were the wrong way of going about it to make him alter his 
opinion, and the English grumblings were mere threats. He was also 
a strong man, and a strong man passes over hints, and will not act until 
he is attacked. Besides, he was a religious man, and although his re- 
ligion might be stern like that of the Old Testament people's, or the 
old Covenanters,' it was religion still and told him that he who had the 
right on his side must be still until he was too much oppressed, when he 
might rise in all his wrath. 

Affairs went on in South Africa, the mining industries, business of 
all sorts ; people in gay life held their festivities and were apparently as 
carelessly happy as were those at the . Duchess of Richmond's ball on 
the night when the cannon suddenly boomed and told the dancers that 
war was at their doors. And in the English official breast was a gnaw- 
ing — England must act again, she must defend her people here in this 
reclaimed African desert, and wrongs must be righted and old defeats 



SOUTH AFRICA. i*3 

wiped out by new victories. And in his plain home, surrounded by his 
children and his children's children, the wife that had been his helpmate 
so long sitting beside the comfortable fire knitting or sewing for the 
poor, was an aging man smoking his pipe, his hand resting upon his 
open Bible, hearing as from afar off rumblings that told him the peace 
of the Republic was not assured, but that peace or war he was the Presi- 
dent and with the power vested in him he would rule and not be put 
down, and that his people should be free from the yoke of England. 

By the beginning of 1897 order had replaced the agitation which 
the insurrection and raid had made. This order had no sooner been 
brought about than the reformers did their best to break it. 

Mr, Kruger was re-elected President, and the agitation for reforms 
was renewed. Jameson's raid had made Kruger's re-election sure, 
and the trial and conviction of Dr. Jameson by the English had a good 
effect upon the relations between London and Pretoria. 

But there came an inquiry into the merits of the case by Parlia- 
ment, through the influence of Mr. Chamberlain, and the good effects 
were thrown over. Difficulties were thrown in the way of getting at a 
true statement of affairs, as difficulties were thrown in the way of getting 
at the true state of affairs in the case of Capain Dreyfus, in Paris. The 
committee who were to find who was most guilty, Dr. Jameson and his 
advisers, or Mr. Kruger and his people, were plainly told that Mr. 
Rhodes, Dr. Jameson's principal adviser, was under Royal protection 
and acted up to his requirements. Then Mr. Rhodes told his story 
about the Transvaal government, its tyranny over the foreign popula- 
tion there, its unfairness to that population, its many acts that were ille- 
gal. There was a great deal of Parliament business, which would be 
uninteresting to print here, and certain wise statesmen saw in the future 
a great war between England and the Transvaal Republic when the 
Transvaal would fall and Great Britain would annex it and the great 



124 



THE STORY OF 



South African Republic would cease to exist. Other equally wise 
statesmen said in that war a portion of the British Empire would be 
wrecked, ruin would fall upon the British colonies in Africa, while the 
hatred stirred up by the war would never cool off. Others again said 
that Mr. Kruger would be able to hold war at arm's length, and that by 
his firmness and watchfulness over public events he would keep destruc- 
tion away from his country, while the cleverness of his enemies would 
grow weary and Great Britain would gladly swing around and be 
friendly with Africa once and forever. 

Alas! War was to come — the Africander's second war of Inde- 
pendence. 

In March, 1899, a petition signed by twenty-one thousand Uit- 
landers, or strangers in the Transvaal Republic, was sent to Her Ma- 
jesty, Queen Victoria, asking that she should interfere to secure just 
treatment for the British Uitlanders. In that petition it was stated that 
President Kruger had not made the reforms he should, that the African- 
ders monopolized the dynamite industry although a government com- 
mission had inquired into the right of the monopoly and suggested 
many reforms ; the making of the High Court less in power than the 
President, and the dismissal of the Chief Justice because he protested 
against interference with the Court's independence to act ; the selection 
of none but burghers to sit on juries; the attitude of the police toward 
the Uitlanders; the continued outrages on the British subjects and their 
property; taxation without representation; and the keeping from the 
Uitlander children the privileges of education. 

After considerable correspondence between the two governments 
a conference was arranged between President Kruger and Sir Alfred 
Milner, the British High Commissioner of South Africa. The confer- 
ence took place at Bloemfontein, May 31 to June 5. 

Sir Alfred Milner said that the Uitlanders ought to be represented 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



125 



in the Volksraad which should enable them to gradually work out the 
needed reforms. In reply to this President Kruger said that he doubted 
if the Uitlanders cared anything for the privilege of voting, that if they 
voted the country would be controlled by foreigners, and all power 
taken from the burghers. The conference adjourned till the next day 
without anything being concluded, for the English determined they 
would have their way, and the Africanders would make concession only 
as they saw best. The second day of the conference saw little done 
that was any more conclusive. The third day President Kruger of- 
fered a new proposal as to the right to vote of the English residents in 
the Transvaal. This proposition stated that an alien could have the 
right to vote in seven years, but first he must signify his intention to 
vote by giving notice to the Field Cornet (a magistrate), the Landrost 
and the State Secretary. Two years later he might become naturalized 
as a citizen provided he had not broken any of the laws of the Republic. 
There were other and rather confusing requirements which the Uitland- 
er must comply with before he was granted full powers as a voter and a 
citizen. Of course, these were hard conditions, but arguing as he did, 
President Kruger was doing all for the interests of his own people who 
did not want the strangers in the land, and who feared the voting power 
granted to them would eventually oust the Africanders even to the ex- 
tent of electing an English president. Sir Alfred Milner declared the 
proposed idea was unworkable. . Mr. Chamberlain telegraphed, asking 
the appointment of delegates to see if the proposed method would effect 
the reforms desired by the English. 

The Transvaal government then proposed the right of the Uitland- 
er to vote if he would not interfere in internal affairs of the Republic, 
if he would not insist upon further co-operation of Great Britain, and if 
he would agree to arbitration. Mr. Chamberlain refused this proposi- 
tion. In reply the Transvaal withdrew all proposals. Mr. Chamber- 



126 



THE STORY OF 



lain then said he would accept five years' residence right to vote, with- 
out the conditions attached by the Transvaal, and said that Great Brit- 
ain had no designs on the independence of the country. The Republic 
insisted upon the conditions of no interference with the affairs of the 
Republic, and no persistence in asking for co-operation from Great Brit- 
ain when dissatisfaction should arise. For somehow in the counsels 
with the British authorities suspicions crept in which did not add to 
the peaceful settlement of the question of the right of the foreigners to 
vote. 

On the 25th of September the British cabinet gave out the text oi 
another note to the South African Republic. When this note was 
known in the Transvaal there was a tightening of the muscles, and a 
brightness added to the eyes of the Africanders. In these days the Afri- 
canders might not all be rude and unintelligent people, as the British 
made them out to be, and there were good statesmen .among them, 
worthies and divines; but in their veins flowed the blood of the Boers 
who had trekked so many years ago in order to establish a form of gov- 
ernment of their own in land never before trod by the foot of white man ; 
many of them had been in that trek, notably the president, and they 
coul'd not be expected to view with unprejudiced eyes the acts of a 
government which had through its accredited representatives deceived 
them in many instances. The note which the British cabinet had made 
public, said, "The object which Her Majesty's government had in view 
in the recent negotiations has been stated in a manner which cannot ad- 
mit of misunderstanding — viz. : To obtain such substantial and immed- 
iate representation for the outlanders as will enable them to secure for 
themselves that fair and just treatment which was formerly promised 
them in 1881, and which Her Majesty intended to secure for them when 
she granted privileges of self-government to the Transvaal." 

It is worth while having this note in the formal language, for much 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



127 



came from it. The note goes on to say : "The refusal of the South Afri- 
can government to entertain the offer thus made makes it useless to fur- 
ther pursue the discussion on the lines hitherto followed, and the impe- 
rial government is now compelled to consider the situation afresh and 
formulate its own proposals for a final settlement of the issues which 
have been created in South Africa by the policy constantly followed by 
the government of South Africa. They will communicate the result 
of their deliberations in a later despatch." 

While the Africanders scarcely expected that a polite note would be 
sent them from England, this threat of Her Majesty's cabinet to "for- 
mulate its own proposals" made many a hardy Boer glad that he was a 
good marksman and that ammunition and the properties for carrying on 
a successful warfare were not so difficult to obtain in these days as they 
were in the times when South Africa had only the old Dutch guns that 
had been brought by the early settlers from the Netherlands. 

The "later despatch" promised by the British cabinet in its note 
was never sent. Therefore, the answer to it from the Transvaal was 
held back, awaiting this letter which was to have in it the result of 
further deliberations on the part of Her Majesty's government. At last 
when everybody knew that the two countries were on the eve of war, 
Mr. Chamberlain gave out on the 10th of October the contents of the 
African Republic's reply to the English cabinets note of the 25th of 
September. It had been sent to London by cable, and it said: "The 
government of the South African Republic feels itself compelled to 
refer the government of Her Majesty, Queen of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, once more to the convention of London, 1884, concluded between 
this republic and the United Kingdom, and which in article XIV, se- 
cures certain specific rights to the white population of this Republic, 
namely : That all persons other than natives, on conforming themselves 
to the laws of the South African Republic, 



128 



THE STORY OF 



"(A) Will have full liberty, with their families, to enter, travel or 
reside in any part of the South African Republic. 

"(B) They will be entitled to hire, or possess, houses, manufac- 
tories, ware houses, shops and other premises. 

"(C) They may carry on their commerce either In person or by 
any agent whom they may think fit to employ. 

"(D) They shall not be subject, in respect of their premises or pro- 
perty, or in respect of their commerce and industry, to any taxes other 
than those which are or may be imposed upon the citizens of the said 
Republic. 

"This government wishes further to observe that these are the 
only rights which Her Majesty's government has reserved in the above 
convention with regard to the outlander population of this Republic, 
and that a violation only of those rights could give that government 
a right to diplomatic representations or intervention; while moreover, 
the regulations of all other questions affecting the position of the rights 
of the outlander population under the above mentioned convention is 
handed over to the government and representatives of the South Afri- 
can Republic. 

"Among the questions the regulation of which falls exclusively 
within the competence of this government and of the Volksraad are in- 
cluded those of the franchise and the representation of the people in 
this Republic ; and, although this exclusive right of this government and 
of the Volksraad for the regulation of the franchise and the representa- 
tion of the people is indisputable, yet this government has found occa- 
sion to discuss, in friendly fashion, the franchise and representation of 
the people with Her Majesty's government — without, however, recog- 
nizing any right thereto on the part of Her Majesty's government. 

"This government has also, by the formulation of the now existing 
franchise law and by a resolution with regard to the representation, con- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 129 

stantly held these friendly discussions before its eyes. On the part of 
Her Majesty's government, however, the friendly nature of these discus- 
sions has assumed more and more a threatening tone, and the minds of 
the people of this republic and the whole of South Africa have been ex- 
cited and a condition of extreme tension has been created, owing to the 
fact that Her Majesty's government could no longer agree to the legis- 
lation respecting the franchise and the resolution respecting representa- 
tion in this Republic, and finally, by your note of September 25, 1899, 
which broke off all friendly correspondence on the subject and intimated 
that Her Majesty's government must now proceed to formulate its own 
proposals for the final settlement. 

"This government can only see in the above intimation from Her 
Majesty's government a new violation of the convention of London, 
1884, which does not reserve to Her Majesty's government the right to 
a unilateral settlement of a question which is exclusively a domestic one 
for this government, and which has already been regulated by this gov- 
ernment. 

"On account of the strained situation and the consequent serious 
loss in and interruption of trade in general, which the correspondence 
respecting franchise and the representation of the people of this Re- 
public has carried in its train, Her Majesty's government has recently 
pressed for an early settlement, and finally pressed, by your interven- 
tion, for an answer within forty-eight hours, a demand subsequently 
somewhat modified, to* your note of September 12, replied to by the note 
of this government of September 15, and to your note of September 
25th, 1899, an d thereafter further friendly negotiations were broken off, 
this government receiving an intimation that a proposal for a final settle- 
ment would shortly be made. Although this promise was once more 
repeated, the proposal up to now, has not reached this government. 

"Even while this friendly correspondence was still going on the 



i 3 o THE STORY OF 

increase of troops on a large scale was introduced by Her Majesty's gov- 
ernment, the troops being stationed in the neighborhood of this Repub- 
lic. Having regard to occurrences in the history of this Republic, 
which it is unnecessary here to call to mind, this Republic felt obliged to 
regard this military force in the neighborhood of its borders as a threat 
against the independence of the South African Republic, since it was 
aware of no circumstances which could justify the presence of such 
a military force in South Africa and in the neighborhood of its borders. 

"In answer to an inquiry with respect thereto, addressed to His 
Excellency, the High Commissioner, this government received, to its 
great astonishment, in answer a veiled insinuation that from the side 
of the Republic an attack was being made on Her Majesty's colonies, 
and, at the same time, a mysterious reference to possibilities whereby 
this government was strengthened in its suspicion that the indepen- 
dence of this Republic was being threatened. 

"As a defensive measure this government was, therefore, obliged 
to send a portion of the burghers of this Republic in order to offer re- 
quisite resistance to similar possibilities." 

I have thought it best to give this note in full, rather than condense 
it, so that it could be seen in diplomatic language that the British gov- 
ernment had failed to send the second note promised in the note of Sep- 
tember 25th, and that active preparations for war, even to the getting 
together of troops, had been going on on both sides for several weeks. 
A month and more before this, August 7th, before the British cabinet 
engaged to prolong the friendly correspondence by promising a later 
despatch containing its own proposals for a final settlement, Mr. Cham- 
berlain, in the House of Commons, delivered a speech that has become 
famous. It was a speech that told beyond all possibility of doubt that 
at that early date war was fully expected. He said : 

"The government has stated that they recognize the grievances 



SOUTH AFRICA. 131 

under which their subjects in Africa were laboring. THey had stated 
that they found those grievances not only in themselves a subject for 
interposition, but a source of danger to the whole of South Africa. They 
(the government) said their predominance which both sides of the 
House had constantly asserted, was menaced by the action of the Trans- 
vaal government in refusing the redress of grievances, and in refusing 
any consideration of the requests hitherto put in the most moderate 
language of the suzerain power. They said that that was a state of 
things which could not be long tolerated. They had said : 'We have 
put our hands to the plow and we will not turn back,' and with that 
statement I propose to rest content." 

This was the plainest kind of language. According to it the Brit- 
ish government's demand that the South African Republic must accept 
English control of affairs so purely domestic as the voting right and the 
representation of her citizens — or fight. 

It is very remarkable that Germany, France, the United States and 
other great nations whose subjects were among the foreign population 
in the Transvaal, heard of no grievances inflicted on their subjects by 
the South African Republic sufficient to call forth even a friendly re- 
quest for redress. It was always the English who were badly treated, 
though they were with the others. Is it possible they were more thin 
skinned than the others? The United States has been said to be the 
most thin skinned of nations regarding foreign insult, and yet the Yan- 
kees in the Transvaal made no* outcry that the Boers were distressing 
them. The day after Mr. Chamberlain's speech (and you know the 
war has been called "Mr. Chamberlain's war"), the London papers 
stated that the Liverpool and Manchester regiments that were then at 
the Cape were ordered to report at Natal ; that the 1 5th of Hussars were 
to embark on the 23d of August, and that the troops were to be massed 
all along the Transvaal. August nth it was announced that 12,000 



132 



THE STORY OF 



English troops were to proceed from India to South Africa, and on 
the same date a large consignment of army stores, including medicines, 
was sent from the royal arsenal at Woolwich for shipment to Natal, 
while the sum of $2,000,000 in gold went on its way to South Africa for 
the War Office account. In South Africa troops from India and Eng- 
land began to arrive in the first week of October — before war had been 
declared. By the 10th of October, 15,000 troops had landed. These 
troops were hurried to the frontiers of the Orange Free State, most of 
them concentrating along the northern boundary of Natal, which was 
convenient to the southern frontier of the Transvaal. But the South 
African Republic was not to be taken unawares this time; it knew its 
enemy, and also made preparations after Mr. Chamberlain's speech in 
the House of Commons. Orders were at once given for the purchase 
of 1,000 trek oxen to be used in the commissary department. August 
nth the German steamer, Reichstag, arrived at Lorenzo Marquez, with 
four hundred cases of ammunition. On the 12th it was decided to go 
on at once with making fortified camps at Laing's Nek and Majuba Hill, 
and orders were sent out for armored trains. On the 13th the artillery 
went into camps where they were instructed in the use of guns of the 
latest pattern. August 14th the Field Cornets were ordered to distri- 
bute Mauser rifles, and the government began purchasing mules and 
provisions and camp supplies. August 15th arms and ammunition were 
sent on to Oudtshoorn, Aliwal, Bethany and other convenient points 
in Cape Colony and the Orange Free State, for South Africa in all parts 
was to rise against Great Britain when hostilities should begin. There 
was no separation of parts of the country now — it was like our own 
country when Spain sank the Maine, and South and North sprang up 
against a mutual enemy, and the old feeling of the civil war vanished 
away forever. August 19th the German steamer Koenig arrived in 
Delagoa Bay with 2000 cases of cartridges for the Transvaal govern- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



133 



ment. The same day ammunition was despatched to Kimberley, Jag- 
ersfontein and Aliwal North for the arming of sympathizing partisans in 
those parts of Cape Colony. The same day three hundred Transvaal 
artillerists went out of Johannesburg to guard Komati Pass, in the 
Limbobo Mountains. This was war, and yet war had not been de- 
clared. But war had long been in the air, and the "friendly diplomatic 
correspondence" was received for as much as it was worth, such cor- 
respondence being not unknown in which England had engaged the at- 
tention of the Africanders till English plans were complete for a set- 
tlement of a possible difference of opinion on the part of the Boers. 




_ 

THE IMPERIAL YEOMAN'S LAST RIDE. (r. Caton woodville.) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

October, 1899 — Document of South African Government — Reward Offered for Cecil 
Rhodes — Description of Volksraad — Orange Free State aroused — Proclamation 
of President Stein — "Oorlog" — War! — The forces of Great Britain — Strength of 
Africanders — News of Capture of two English regiments — Surprise in London — 
Besieging newspaper offices and War Office for news — War realized as being a 
real thing. 

O it went on during the ''friendly diplomatic correspond- 
ence," which ended on the 25th of September and the 
"later despatch" from the British cabinet never came. 
Both sides were arming and drilling men in manoeuvres, 
trying for advantages in the struggle which both felt 
must come. Seeing that in the days spent till that "later despatch" 
should arrive, Great Britain was bringing her immense force to South 
Africa and massing it along the frontier of the Transvaal, and feeling 
sure that no "later despatch" would come till his great foe should have 
secured points of vantage against him, President Kruger astonished the 
world by issuing a document that was bold enough to come from the 
English themselves. This document was dated 5 o'clock in the after- 
noon of October 9th, and is as follows : 

"Her Majesty's unlawful intervention in the internal affairs of this 
republic, in conflict with the London convention of 1884, and by the 
extraordinary strengthening of her troops in the neighborhood of the 
borders of this republic, has caused an intolerable condition of things 
to arise, to which this government feels itself obliged, in the interest not 
only of this republic, but also of all South Africa, to make an end as 
soon as possible. 

*37 




38 



THE STORY OF 



"This government feels itself called upon and obliged to press ear- 
nestly and with emphasis for an immediate termination of this state of 
things, and to request Her Majesty's government to give assurances 
upon the following four demands: 

"First — That all points of mutual difference be regulated by 
friendly recourse to arbitration or by whatever amicable way may be 
agreed upon by this government and Her Majesty's government. 

"Second — That all troops on the borders of this republic shall be 
immediately withdrawn. 

"Third — That all re-inforcements of troops which have arrived in 
South Africa since June I, 1899, shall be removed from South Africa 
within a reasonable time, to be agreed upon with this government, and 
with the mutual assurance and guarantee on the part of this government 
that no attack upon or hostilities against any portion of the possession 
of the British government shall be made by this republic during the 
further negotiations within a period of time to be subsequently agreed 
upon between the governments ; and this government will, on compli- 
ance therewith, be prepared to withdraw the burghers of this republic 
from the borders. 

"Fourth — That Her Majesty's troops which are now on the high 
seas shall not be landed in any part of South Africa. 

"This government presses for an immediate and affirmative answer 
to these four questions and earnestly requests Her Majesty's govern- 
ment to return an answer before or upon Wednesday, October 11, 1899, 
not later than 5 o'clock P. M. 

"It desires further to add that in the unexpected event of an answer 
not satisfactory being received by it within the interval, it will with 
great regret be compelled to regard the action of Her Majesty's govern- 
ment as a formal declaration of war and will not hold itself responsible 
for the consequences thereof, and that in the event of any further move- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 139 

ment of troops occurring within the above mentioned time in a nearer 
direction to our borders, this government will be compelled to regard 
that also as a formal declaration oiwar." 

This document was signed by F. W. Reitz, State Secretary, who 
handed it to M. Conyngham Greene, Her Majesty's agent at Pretoria. 
Wednesday afternoon, October nth, at 3 o'clock, a reply from his gov- 
ernment was delivered by Mr. Greene. It read thus : 

"Her Majesty's government declines even to consider the peremp- 
tory demands of the Transvaal government." 

In an hour the telegraph wires flashed through all the South 
African Republic the terrible word "Oorlog" — war ! 

Mr. Conyngham Green at once made peparations to leave and 
asked for his passport. The next day, October 12th, he and his fam- 
ily attended by a guard of honor, was sent to the border of the Orange 
Free State, where another guard of honor received them and escorted 
them to British territory at Cape Colony. 

That Thursday, the 12th of October, was certainly an exciting day 
both in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, for the two Republics 
were one in the struggle, getting closer together in kindliness of feel- 
ing than they had been in years. War had been declared only twenty- 
four hours when, on the night of the 12th of October, 30,000 burghers 
were on the borders ready for fight. Out of these 20,000 invaded Natal 
under General Joubert and the van guard took possession of Newcastle 
the following day. The other 10,000, under General Piet Cronje 
marched across the western border into British Bechuanaland and went 
steadily on to Mafeking. Kimberley was the point of attention, for Mr. 
Cecil Rhodes was supposed to be in Kimberley and declared that town to 
be as safe as the best guarded part of London. It seemed though, that 
now the Boers were about to make him change his opinion, for it was 
said that they were anxious to capture Mr. Rhodes, whom they regarded 



i 4 o THE STORY OF 

as their worst enemy on account of the Jameson Raid, which was under- 
taken at his suggestion. A reward equivalent to $25,000 was offered 
for him, dead or alive. 

The outbreak of the war, of course, compelled all English consuls 
and government officials to leave the country, and the United States, 
therefore, undertook to look after the interests of Great Britain in South 
Africa until peace came again. This fact gave satisfaction in many 
quarters and a considerable number of people believed that America 
would sympathize entirely with England in the outbreak. For in many 
quarters the Boers were said to stop progress, to be quarrelsome, to be 
false, as they were untidy in their habits, narrow minded and unfair. 
But throughout the war, upon whose threshold we now stood, the 
United States had more sympathizers with the Transvaal than with 
Great Britain, though our relations with the latter country were friend- 
lier now than they ever had been. That the boys and girls of America 
were with the Boers was not to be wondered at. Our boys and girls have 
in their hearts a keen sense of justice, and they saw in the declaration 
of war an evidence of a plucky republic determined to stand out against 
a powerful country which had always grasped territory wherever it 
could be touched, and which had years and years ago lost a good deal 
of territory it had possessed through its tyrannical methods — the ter- 
ritory that is now our own country and which, in 1776, we declared 
should and of right ought to be free. Later on in the war hundreds and 
thousands of the boys and girls of the United States, schoolchildren 
they were, got up a paper to which they appended their signatures an- 
nouncing to President Kruger that they sympathized with him, and this 
paper was sent to Mr. Kruger. A messenger boy took it, and vast 
mobs of people accompanied this boy to the wharf where was moored 
the vessel that was to take him on the first part of his long voyage to 
South Africa, and bands played, and men, women and children cheered, 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



143 



and he sailed away to let the ruler of a republic know that the coming 
men and women of another republic far away were thinking of him in 
his fight with the same nation against which that other republic had 
more than once waged war and conquered. But all this came after that 
October day in 1899 when South Africa declared war against England. 
This, and the chapter before it, is to show the causes for the war of the 
Africanders' second fight for independence ; the following of the events 
of the war are to make another part of this book. The Volksraad had 
agreed to the war, the people had agreed with the Volksraad. The 
Volksraad is not like our own capitol at Washington, nor are its sit- 
tings like those of our Senate and House of Representatives. It is in 
the market square at Pretoria. "At 9 o'clock in the morning a boy 
hoists a flag at the corner of the pavement. The flag has three hori- 
zontal stripes, red, white and blue. Inside the building wooden rails 
divide the Parliament House into a space which looks like a sheep pen. 
There is a large black board on the wall. State papers are tacked to this 
board. The bell rings, and the members of the Volksraad come in. 
They take seats at two green tables shaped like horsehoes. The walls 
of the room are white washed. President Kruger comes in. He wears 
a green sash over his coat as an emblem of his office, and sits at a raised 
desk on one side of the room. There is a little canopy over him made of 
the national colors. The chairman of the Raad sits at the president's 
side. At a little table sits Commandant General Joubert. He is very 
popular and is known to be a brave man. The president preserves or- 
der by pounding on the desk in front of him. The Boers are great 
smokers; they have adjournments of fifteen minutes during sessions, 
and this gives them a chance to smoke. When the members attend the 
Volksraad they receive about $7.50 a day. It is said that one member's 
wife thought her husband ought to have more money than the others 
because he talked more than the others. It is said that on one occasion 



144 THE STORY OF 

the progressive party wished to pass measures for opening and improv- 
ing the Boers' country. Many were opposed to this, and resolved to 
prevent the measure from being passed. They also did it by reviving a 
long forgotten statute which provided that all members must sit attired 
in black cloth suits and wear white handkerchiefs around their necks 
When this statute was brought up so many members were disqualified 
because they did not have the necessary suits and handkerchiefs that 
business in the house had to stop. It is stated that a member who lived 
next door went out and put on his Sunday suit, with the proper collar 
and tie. He then sent his associates to his house, and they attired them- 
selves in his accumulated old black suits and white ties. Then all of 
them appeared in the Volksraad and the sittings was resumed." 

Maybe the little boy ran up the red, white and blue flag on that 
morning in October that was to mean so much to England and South 
Africa ; maybe the bell was rung ; maybe the members came in and saw 
on the blackboard up against the white-washed wall a paper that was a 
public document and announced "Oorlog;" maybe President Kruger 
came in in his green sash and took his seat. Surely he had to pound on 
the desk in front of him to get order when the paper on the blackboard 
was understood, for the members of the Volksraad, without taking time 
to put on their own black suits or the old black suits of another mem- 
ber, were there to see that paper and to say yes, that voiced their senti- 
ments, and the pounding on the desk of all the presidents in the world 
could not drown their voices that cried "Oorlog! Oorlog!" 

And then the troops marched away under General Cronje, whose 
name was shortly to fly on the electric wires from one end of the world 
to the other, and England was preparing to meet the brave Boers with 
Englishmen just as brave. This is the story that begins the war. It 
only remains to show, before going on in the train of after and warlike 
events, that in all matters of dispute between the government of the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 145 

Transvaal and the government of Great Britain, and in the war that re- 
sulted from those disputes the two Africander republics of the Trans- 
vaal and the Orange Free State acted together. Early in November, 
1899, the president of the Orange Free State announced this to his peo- 
ple and the people of the other parts of the world in the following pro- 
clamation : 

"BURGHERS OF THE ORANGE FREE STATE:— The time 
which we had so much desired to avoid ; the moment when we, as a na- 
tion are compelled with arms to oppose injustice and shameless violence, 
is at hand. Our sister republic to the north of the Vaal River is about 
to be attacked by an unscrupulous enemy, who for many years has pre- 
pared herself and sought pretexts for the violence of which he is now 
guilty, whose purpose is to destroy the existence of the Africander race. 

"With our sister republic we are not only bound by ties of blood, 
of sympathy, and of common interests, but also by formal treaty which 
has been necessitated by circumstances. This treaty demands of us 
that we assist her should she be unjustly attacked, which we unfortun- 
ately for a long time have had too much reason to expect. We there- 
fore cannot passively look on while injustice is done her, and while also 
our own dearly bought freedom is endangered, but are called as men 
to resist, trusting the Almighty, firmly believing He will never permit 
injustice and unrighteousness to triumph. 

"Now that we thus resist a powerful enemy with whom it has al- 
ways been our highest desire to live in friendship, notwithstanding in- 
justice and wrong done by him to us in the past, we solemnly declare 
in the presence of the Almighty God that we are compelled thereto by 
the injustice done to our kinsmen and by the consciousness that the 
end of their independence will make our existence as an independent 
state of no significance, and that their fate, should they be obliged to 
bend under an overwhelming power, will also soon after be our own 



146 THE STORY OF 

fate. Solemn treaties have not protected our sister republic against 
annexation, against conspiracy, against the claim of an abolished suzer- 
ainty, against continuous oppressions and interference, and now against 
a renewed attack which aims only at her down fall. 

"Our own unfortunate experiences in the past have also made it 
sufficiently clear to us that we cannot rely upon the most solemn prom- 
ises and agreements of Great Britain, when she has at her helm a 
government prepared to trample on treaties, to look for feigned pre- 
texts for every violation of good faith by her committed. This is proved 
among other things by the unjust and unlawful British intervention af- 
ter we had overcome an armed and barbarous black tribe on our eastern 
frontier, as also by the forcible appropriation of the dominion over part 
of our territory where the discovery of diamonds had caused the desire 
for this appropriation, although contrary to existing treaties. The de- 
sire and intention to trample on our rights as an independent and sover- 
eign nation, notwithstanding a solemn convention existing between this 
state and Great Britain, have also been more than once, and are now 
again, shown by the present government by giving expression in pub- 
lic documents to an unfounded claim to paramountcy over the whole of 
South Africa and therefore over this state. 

"With regard to the South Africa Republic, Great Britain has 
moreover refused until the present to allow her original position in re- 
spect to foreign affairs, a position which she has lost In no sense by her 
own faults. The original intention of the conventions to which the Re- 
public had consented under pressure and circumstances, has been per- 
verted and continually been used by the present British administration 
as a means for the practice of tyranny and of injustice, and, among oth- 
er things, for the support of a revolutionary propaganda within the Re- 
public in favor of Great Britain. 

"And while no redress has been offered, as justice demands, for in- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



147 



justice done to the South African Republic on the part of the British 
government; and while no gratitude is expected for the magnanimity 
shown at the request of the British government to British subjects who 
had forfeited under the laws of the Republic their lives and property, 
yet no feeling of shame has prevented the British government, now that 
the gold mines of immense value have been discovered in the country, 
to make claims of the Republic, the consequence of which, if allowed, 
will be that those who — or whose forefathers — have saved the country 
from barbarism and have won it for civilization with their blood and 
their tears, will lose their control over the interests of the country to 
which they are justly entitled according to divine and human laws. The 
consequence of these claims would be, moreover, that the greater part 
of the power will be placed in the hands of those who, foreigners by 
birth, enjoy the privilege of depriving the country of its chief treasure, 
while they have never shown any loyalty to a foreign government. Be- 
sides, the inevitable consequence of the acceptance of these claims would 
be that the independence of the country as a self-governing, independ- 
ent sovereign republic would be irreparably lost. For years past the 
British troops in great numbers have been placed on the frontiers of our 
sister republic in order to compel her by fear to accede to the demands 
which would be pressed upon her, and in order to encourage revolution- 
ary disturbances and the cunning plans of those whose greed for gold 
is the cause of their shameless undertakings. 

"Those plans have now reached their climax in the open violence 
to which the present British government now resorts. While we read- 
ily acknowledge the honorable character of thousands of Englishmen 
who loathe such deeds of robbery and wrong, we cannot but abhor the 
shameless breaking of treaties, the feigned pretexts for the transgres- 
sion of law, the violation of international law and of justice and the 
numerous right-rending deeds of the British statesmen, who will now 



148 



THE STORY OF 



force a war upon the South African Republic. On their heads be the 
guilt of blood, and may a just Providence' reward all as they deserve. 

"Burghers of the Free Orange State, rise as one man against the 
oppressor and the violator of right ! 

"In the strife to which we are now driven have care to commit no 
deed unworthy of a Christian and of a burgher of the Orange Free 
State. Let us look forward with confidence to a fortunate end of this 
conflict, trusting to the Higher Power without whose help human weap- 
ons are of no avail. 

"May he bless our arms. Under his banner we advance to battle 
for liberty and for fatherland. . 

M. T. STEYN, 

State President/' 
Is there not in this proclamation something like the old proclama- 
tions that used to be tacked up in the market places and public squares 
of our own land a little over a hundred years ago? Proclamations which 
used to make men hasten from the field and the workshop and take down 
sword and gun and stand ready — proclamations which made men too 
old to fight pretend that they were younger, and boys too young declare 
they were older than they looked? The housewives and mothers in the 
two African republics sent their men.and boys to the front, anxious and 
willing to go themselves. In England it was the same thing. The 
English believed their cause was good, or even if they did not so believe, 
yet their country had war declared against it and they must fight. Eng- 
land had never been backward in bravery; her best, the flower of the 
young men would go where the country needed them. The force the 
English were to call to their aid is known as the militia, and Great Bri- 
tain could command in round numbers a hundred and thirty thousand 
men. There were also the volunteers. The volunteers were called in- 
to their first service in 1859 when it was feared that war might break out 



SOUTH AFRICA. 149 

between ,England and France in consequence of an attempt made to as- 
sassinate the French Emperor, Napoleon III. A hundred and fifty 
thousand men organized at that time. 

The volunteers are a recent thing. The militia on the other hand 
is very old. They are heard of as far back as the time of Edward I, 1272. 
They were then called upon to guard their own shire, a division of land 
which, though much smaller, answers to the division of our states into 
counties. Each body of militia was to protect its own shire and not go 
outside. In the time of Charles II this was changed and the militia 
could from that time on be ordered where necessity demanded their ser- 
vices. The militia really is only liable for home service, and the great 
use of it made by Great Britain has been to encourage men to enlist 
from it to the regular army. 

In October, at the time of the declaration of war, England had, 
first, a militia reserve to send abroad, then she could send all the regular 
soldiers to foreign service, while their places were filled from the ranks 
of the militia. When this was done there was still an enormous volun- 
teer force. 

The real strength of the Africander soldiery was not known, but it 
was a mere handful compared to that of England. It has been said that 
a few thousands of men were all they had, but the boys of a few years of 
age were ready to fight, and like their ancestors they knew a good deal 
about the handling of a gun. Besides, the Africanders had an enor- 
mous advantage over the English when it came to a fight in their own 
country, for the land had natural defences which the Boer could take 
advantage of by his being on the spot, and one man there was equal to 
a dozen outsiders who were trying to get in. 

Here were two brave people ready to fight each other. In South 
Africa there was to be defensive warfare of course, and a good defense 
was to be made. It was in England, however, that most excitement 



i 5 o THE STORY OF 

prevailed, for the Africander took his war rather quietly, being used to 
attacks from the Briton. But in England it was otherwise. For while 
England was certain that it could in time wipe out the Africanders, yet 
there was to be a great fight, a big fight. And suddenly, almost before 
the declarations of President Kruger and President Steyn were read by 
the masses, came the report that two regiments of soldiers and a battery 
of guns had been surrounded by the Boers and forced to surrender. 

The news was received in London with surprise that was almost 
horror. The news came in the afternoon when the streets were filled 
with people. Men were enraged and incredulous. But the women, old 
and young, rich and poor, who had relatives and friends among the re- 
cently embarked troops, rushed to the newspaper offices, and hurried to 
the War Office. 

The story was that a Boer commander had met a British comman- 
der, the Boer forces surrounded the British forces, and it was soon over. 

Were any killed and wounded? The little intelligence sent to Lon- 
don did not say, and it might not be a fight at all. But it was known 
that the Boers were entering the war with a religious feeling that the 
Lord was on their side, and that they could not be beaten, that they 
carried their Bibles with them and did not know what fear meant. The 
English knew what sort of fighters such belief and reliance on the Su- 
preme Power made ; men who believed that Providence was with them 
would not wait too long, nor parley too frequently — they felt that their 
cause was a holy one and that those arrayed against it must be put 
down as emissaries of the Evil One. 

The day the news of a first encounter reached London, business be- 
came practically at a stand still, the clubs emptied their members on the 
streets, houses were deserted, and people asked one another what it 
could mean. When it was certain that there would be bloody fighting, 
and not a mere putting down of the Boers by a skirmish or two, Mr. 



£XODUS OF BRITISH SUBJECTS, (wai p ag < 



SOUTH AFRICA. 153 

Rhodes was roundly abused by many as being the cause of it all, while 
Mr. Chamberlain was blamed for his speech against the South African 
Republic, and called an upstart, and a few other choice names. Peo- 
ple waited up all night, walking the streets, waiting for fresh news of the 
possible disaster or its contradiction. No contradiction came, and the 
War Office the next day was busy as it could be, making preparations 
for a conflict that must be made as short as possible, to shorten which 
it was necessary that a tremendous force must be sent to the Trans- 
vaal and by strength of numbers and the wonderful new machinery of 
guns and ammunition put down the Boers at once. And it was war — 
war, grim war, cruel war, bloody war, in which the best generals must 
engage, the finest and most soldierly men be used. 

"Oorlog!" in South Africa; "War!" in England. And so we go 
and take part in it. 



CHAPTER IX. 

General Buller embarks for Cape Town — Arrival at Table Bay — Stormburg — The 
story of the armored train — Manning of the train — The push to Frere — The train 
attacked and destroyed — Prisoners of war — Boer treatment of prisoners — First 
battle of the war — Boer's encampment — 'T will wait" — Night in the prisoners' 
hut — The evening hymn of the Boers. 

il!.d!li..illi.. l ||i..iJl| 

f ENERAL SIR RED VERS BULLER sailed for the 
'= Cape, October 14th, on the steamer "Dunottar Castle." 
p London was filled with rumors of all kinds, yet nothing 
L was certain. Reports of terrible disasters to the British 
troops in South Africa had been received, then denied. 
The officers and men who went out with General Buller wondered 
what would be the state of affairs when they came to anchor in Table 
Bay. Some thought that on landing they would hear of the capture of 
Pretoria and the imprisonment of President Kruger in the deepest cell 
in the prison, or that Cape Town had surrendered to the Boers and the 
English hurrying away. War has its amusing side as well as its terrible, 
it would seem, for on the vessel with General Buller were a lot of cin- 
ematographers going out to make snap shots of the South African 
fights which were to be reproduced as moving pictures in England and 
the United States. Also, on the ship athletic sports were in order, and 
a company of the athletes elect General Buller as its president. Again, 
a fancy dress ball takes place. Then the doctors lecture to the troops, 
who are inocculated against the African fevers by having serum injected 
into their arms. 

The "Dunottar Castle" entered Table Bay October 30th. Then 

*55 




156 THE STORY OP 

the men on board heard the truth — there had been fighting, the war was 
on for sure, there had been battles with horrors on both sides. They 
heard that Kimberley had called for relief forces, that the Boers were 
making attacks on the border, on Vryburg and Maf eking; that at the 
first attack on Mafeking the Boers were defeated with great loss, but 
after a steady fight that lasted three days the Boers had gained so many 
advantages that the victory was theirs. The British attempted to repair 
the damages to the railroads which the Boers had brought about, rails 
torn up, road beds blasted away, and for this purpose the troops used 
armored trains and protected the workmen who labored to get the roads 
in order again. The reports said that the bravery of the Boers was re- 
markable, that they advanced close to the armored trains in spite of the 
volleys fired from the cars, and though the loss of life was terrible they 
still pressed on and tried to drive the track layers from their work. The 
train at one time was compelled to move away, though it soon returned 
to the assault. It was in this struggle that the Boers lost many men 
and were finally compelled to retire. 

General Buller's troops also learned that the Boers closed in on 
the town of Mafeking where they were destroying railroad beds and all 
communications with the city as fast as the British troops could repair 
them. The Boer leader, General Cronje, warned the women and chil- 
dren to leave the city, and opened fire on it October 16th. No reply 
was made to the fire, and after awhile a white flag was seen waving over 
the city. This was a signal for a truce, or cessation of hostilities, so the 
Boers sent a messenger, expecting the town to surrender. After being 
detained six hours the messenger returned and reported that no satis- 
factory answer had been made to him. The Boers then continued their 
attacks, capturing a fountain which supplied the town with water, and 
thus cut off the water supply. It was also said the Boers had captured 
a British camp. From Ladysmith, a town of Natal, the reports said 



SOUTH AFRICA. i 59 

that the Boers were successful in all they undertook. A battle was said 
to have raged there all day on the 18th, and that a decisive engagement 
was expected. But it was difficult to get the truth, for the telegraph 
wires had been cut by the Boers, and that most of the despatches were 
sent by bicycle messengers, which was being found to be most useful in 
the conduct of military affairs. 

Again, it was reported that the native tribes were becoming uneasy 
and hard to manage, that the Swazis, the Zulus and the Basutos were all 
arming and preparing to take a hand in the trouble. The Boers were 
especially fearful of a Swazi outbreak. On the other hand, Great Bri- 
tain was threatened by the Zulus and the Basutos. The Zulus had been 
enemies of England for years. They were a military tribe and organ- 
ized like the troops of a modern nation. It was their habit to add the 
tribes they conquered to their own army, and to govern all with a strict 
military system introduced by one of their chiefs who had learned to 
read and studied military tactics. It was the Zulus who killed the 
young Prince Imperial of France, in 1879. Should the Zulus rise 
against England, and if at the same time the fierce Basutos took it into 
their heads to trouble the Boers, it was likely that the British and the 
Boers would have enough work on their hands to put down the natives 
and would have to call off their own fight till later on. These tribes, 
while they were subdued and under the control of foreigners, were not 
very fond of their rulers nor friendly toward them, and coming as they 
did from a long line of warriors, were a force that had to be reckoned 
with. But was it likely they would take sides with either the Boers or 
the British? Was it not more likely that they would do their best to 
oust both parties from the country, which they had taken from the na- 
tives? Under these circumstances, precautions were being taken to put 
down the savages. The Boers were calling the citizens out of Swazi- 
land and doing all they could to protect the borders between the two 



i6o 



THE STORY OF 



countries, while England realizing the necessity for having a large force 
on hand was issuing orders for raising more troops. 

This was the news that met the men of the "Dunottar Castle" when 
that ship anchored in Table Bay, October 30th. Next morning General 
Buller landed in state, bunting flying, a guard of honor, a mounted 
escort, the men cheering, the cinematographs buzzing, the cameras 
clicking. The carriage containing the General drove into town where 
flags were waving and people hurrahing for the brave man. The 
troops were to go on to Ladysmith by the ship, but a man who had gone 
out to report progress of the war for a great daily paper found this too 
slow for him, so he left the ship and started by rail for East London, 
where he should take a small ship that every week carries the English 
mail to Natal. He gained three days, and three days are a great deal 
when a newspaper wants reports at once. 

All along the south frontier of the Free State the signs of expecta- 
tion for an early collision between the Briton and the Boer grew. The 
English proclamation of treason was posted on the notice boards of rail 
ways, with the text in English and Dutch, beginning : "Whereas a state 
of war exists between the government of Her Majesty and the govern- 
ments of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State," going 
on and asking for good and loyal behavior from all, and ending with 
"God save the queen." 

Beyond Matjesfontein every bridge and even the culverts were 
watched by Kaffirs with flags so that the trains should run no risks. On 
the road, as this newspaper correspondent went on, English artillery 
was hurrying on, the men light hearted and confident, as men going to 
war always are. At Beaufort West serious news awaited the mail — 
twelve hundred soldiers had surrendered at Ladysmith. Stormburg Junc- 
tion stands at the southern end of a wide piece of grass country, and 
though numerous rocky hills, or kopjes as they are called, rise on all 



SOUTH AFRICA. 161 

sides and make defence by a small force difficult, a large force occupying 
it could do wonders. The Boers were advancing, and when the train 
of the newspaper correspondent arrived, the evacuation of Stormburg 
was under way. 

Stormburg was an important railway junction. For over a week 
the troops had been working night and day to put it in a state of defence. 
Look-outs had been built on the kopjes, entrenchments had been dug, 
and the few houses near the station had been fortified. The approaches 
were cleared of everything except wire fences and entanglements to 
catch the feet of the unwary ; the walls were loopholed, the windows bar- 
ricaded with sand bags, the rooms inside the station broken one into the 
other to give space in moving about. The garrison consisted of twenty- 
five men. They had a store of provisions which would last them for ten 
days. Everybody thought Fort Chabrol, as they called it, would stand 
a beautiful seige. Then suddenly came the message to retreat. "Re- 
treat — retreat, the enemy are coming. ,, The men were angry, but or- 
ders must be obeyed. 

Pietermaritzburg is sixty miles from Durban. The military en- 
gineers were putting it in a state of defence, digging up its hills, piercing 
its walls and throwing barbed wire fence around it. Newcastle had been 
abandoned by the English, Colenso had fallen, Estercourt was threat- 
ened and Pietermaritzburg asked for protection. 

On November 1st the Boers drew around Ladysmith. The next 
day the last train passed down the railway, fired on by "the artillery. 
That night the line was cut four miles north of Colenso. Telegraph 
communication ceased. On Friday, Colenso was attacked by the Boers. 
A heavy gun came into action from the hills overlooking the town and 
the garrison of infantry volunteers and naval brigade evacuated and pro- 
tected to some extent by an armored train fell back on Estercourt. Es- 
tercourt is a South African town. It lies in a cup of the hills ; therefore 



l62 



THE STORY OF 



it was a difficult place to defend if the invaders should come upon it. 
On Tuesday, the 14th, the mounted infantry patrols reported that 
the Boers in small parties were approaching Estercourt and Colonel 
Long, in command of the English entrenched there, made a reconnois- 
sance to find what strength lay behind the Boer scouts that were advanc- 
ing in small numbers. The reconnoissance found out little. But it 
was believed that a large part of the Boer army that had now full posses- 
sion of Ladysmith was moving to attack Estercourt and would try to 
strike Maritzburg. 

Certain military preparations were made by the English to guard 
against this, and at daybreak Wednesday, patrols were flung out and 
the Estercourt armored train was ordered to reconnoitre towards Chiev- 
ely, some miles away. This was the armored train, something new in 
warfare. An ordinary truck, in which was a seven pounder muzzle- 
loading gun attended to by seven sailors ; an armored car filled with 
loopholes and occupied by three companies of the Dublin Fusiliers ; the 
engine and tender, and two more armored cars containing another sec- 
tion of the Fusilier Company, one company of the Durban Volunteer 
Light Infantry, and a small break-down gang of civilians; lastly, an- 
other ordinary truck with tools and materials for repairing the road 
which was sure to be broken up by the Boers, in all five cars, the locomo- 
tive, one small gun and 120 men, Captain Haldane in command. 

The train started at half past five and reached Frere station in an 
hour. Here a small patrol of the Natal police reported that there were 
no enemy within the next five miles, and that all was quiet in the neigh- 
borhood. It was the silence before the storm. 

Captain Haldane decided to push on cautiously to Chievely, where 
there could be obtained an extended view of the country. Not a sign 
of the Boers there. The beautiful green country looked as peaceful and 
deserted as possible. But behind the green hills not three miles away 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



163 



from Frere Station, the leading commandos of the Africanders were rid- 
ing foward on the path of invasion. 

All was clear as far as Chievely, but as the train reached that station, 
about a hundred Boer horsemen cantered southward about a mile from 
the railway. Beyond Chievely a long hill showed a row of black dots 
which were other Boers. The telegraphist accompanying the train 
wired back to Estercourt that the train had arrived safely, and that par- 
ties of Boers were to be seen at no great distance away. Colonel Long 
replied by ordering the train to come back to Frere and remain there, 
observing, till night when it might retreat safely. Those on the train 
obeyed, and were about two miles from Frere when on rounding a cor- 
ner they saw a hill a few hundred yards away, and the hill was occupied 
by Boers. The four sailors loaded their gun, the soldiers charged their 
magazines and the train moved slowly toward the hill. No one on the 
train seemed much concerned, for the cars were proof against rifle fire, 
and the hill very likely was occupied by only a few Africanders. Be- 
sides, the Africanders would know there was a gun on the train and 
would keep out of danger. 

Suddenly three-wheeled things rolled out upon the crest of the hill 
and there came a bright flash of light, then two larger flashes — no smoke, 
no sound. Immediately over the rear truck of the train a great white 
ball of flame spread out like a comet, and then came explosions. The 
iron sides of the truck were battered by bullets, then came a crash from 
the front and several sharp reports. The Boers had opened fire on the 
train with two large field guns, a Maxim gun that fired several small 
shells in a regular stream, and from splendid aiming riflemen lying on 
the ridge of the hill. The driver of the engine put on full steam. The 
train sprang forward and ran the gauntlet of the guns that filled the air 
with explosions. The train rounded a curve of the hill, ran down a 
steep grade and dashed into a great stone that had been placed on the 



164 THE STORY OF 

track. The trucks in front of the engine containing the guard and the 
materials of the break-down gang jumped into the air and fell over the 
embankment. The car containing the Light Infantry went on a little 
way, then pitched on its side, hurling the men over the ground. The 
third car wedged itself across the track, half on, half off. The rest of the 
train kept to the rails. The Boer guns were firing. The little gun on 
the train got off three rounds before it was struck by a Boer shell and 
toppled over. 

The volunteers who had been spilled crawled anywhere to get out 
of the firing. Captain Haldane and his Fusiliers began firing at the 
Boers through the loopholes in the truck and disturbed the aim of the 
Boers. 

The first thing to do was to detach the truck that was across the 
rails. This was done and safety seemed at hand. But the engine would 
not move, and all at once the couplings snapped, and the engine was 
alone, the cars that had kept it from moving being cut off from it. Cap- 
tain Haldane determined to try and save tKe engine, so the driver went 
slowly along the lines so that the infantry might get as much shelter 
from the iron work of the engine as possible, the main idea being to get 
near the station, not more than 800 yards away, and there hold out while 
the engine went for assistance. As many wounded as possible were piled 
on the engine, in the cab, on the tender, clinging to the cowcatcher. 
And all this time the Boer shells were flying overhead and bursting with 
screaming noises, or striking against the engine and the iron wreckage. 
The engine was soon crowded and began to move, the wood work of the 
fire box in flame, the water spouting from its pierced tanks. The infan- 
trymen straggled along beside it at double quick. 

Seeing that the engine was getting away, the Boers increased their 
fire, bringing in the work of a fresh 1 5-pounder. The troops all along 
protected by the iron trucks began to suffer. The Major of the volun- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



165 



teers was shot through the thigh. Men fell to the ground and cried for 
help, and the engine crawled on like a great wounded animal. A quar- 
ter of the men were soon killed or wounded and the shells kept screaming 
through the air, pursuing the retreating soldiers and mowing them down 
all along the railroad track. Order vanished ; the engine increased its 
speed; it drew away pantingly from the poor fellows scattered on the 
ground and was soon safe. The infantry kept on running down the 
track toward the houses, resolving even yet to make further resistance 
when some shelter had been reached, for they had come to war, and they 
were not afraid in spite of disaster and wounds. But just then some- 
thing occurred. 

A private soldier was wounded, and in the most signal disobedience 
of orders that there was to be no surrender, took his white handkerchief 
from his pocket and began to wave it in the manner of a flag of truce. 
The Boers saw it, and immediately stopped firing, and with daring equal 
only to the humanity of the thing a dozen horsemen galloped down from 
the hills to the scattered groups of English fugitives and called loudly on 
the men to surrender. Most of the soldiers were uncertain what to do, 
then they halted, and then they gave up their arms and were prisoners of 
war. Those farther away from the horsemen began to run and were 
shot at or hunted down in twos and threes, though some made their 
escape. 

The newspaper correspondent from whom much of this story has 
come, was on that train and did good service in trying to right it. He 
then got on the engine and was jammed in the cab next to a sadly 
wounded man. He travelled in this way about 500 yards, and ap- 
proached the houses where it had been resolved to make a stand. Then 
he jumped out on the track to try and get together the men who were 
rushing along, but hardly had the locomotive left him when he found 
himself in a narrow cut with none of the English soldiers at hand, for 



i66 



THE STORY OF 



they had all surrendered on the way. All at once two men appeared on 
the track at the end of the cut. He thought they were plate layers that 
had come in the train now demolished. They were Boers — their tall 
figures in dark flapping clothes, their heads covered with slouch hats, 
storm eaten and rusty. He turned to run, when he thought of the fine 
marksmanship of the Africanders which usually brought down what it 
aimed at. Two bullets passed, and within a foot of him. He flung him- 
self against the green banks rising on the side of the cut, but these gave 
no shelter. He looked back at the tall dark figures, one now kneeling 
and taking aim. The newspaper correspondent thought of the newspa- 
per and how he had been sent here to get news of the war, in which his 
death was not to be included if he could help it. He darted forward for 
some chance of getting away. Two more bullets went past him. He 
sprang up the bank. He sank into the earth, and he was in a little de- 
pression covered with green that hid him. On the opposite side of the 
railway a horseman galloped up, shouting and waving his hand. The 
newspaper correspondent reached down for his pistol, but the pistol 
had been left in the cab of the engine. What was to be done? There was 
a wire fence between him and the horseman. Should he continue to 
run? The horseman was very near, his rifle ready. The newspaper 
correspondent thought that the notice of his death would not look well 
in the newspaper which he represented, so he held up his hand, and he 
too was a prisoner of war. He marched along with the others, a miser- 
able group, and the rain began to pour down, and was not such a beau- 
tiful thing as it is when we read about it in our comfortable homes. And 
so they were to be taken to Pretoria. This is the story of the fate of 
the armored train which we read about in November, 1899. 

The newspapers about this time also spoke about the Boer generals, 
Joubert and Cronje, while the English generals, Kitchener and Roberts, 
were being mentioned along with General Buller who had gone out early 



SOUTH AFRICA. 167 

in October to the Africander land. The prisoners taken after the de- 
struction of the armored train were collected in a group. There were fif- 
ty-six unwounded or slightly wounded men, besides the more serious 
cases still lying on the scene of the fight. 

The Boers crowded around and looked curiously at their cap- 
tives, who had had no breakfast, but who had in their pockets some 
chocolate which the troops had included in their rations. They sat 
down dead tired upon the muddy ground and ate their chocolate. The 
rain poured down, and the horses of the Boers were steaming in the 
dampness. 

"Voorwarts !" called out a voice. Then there was a miserable little 
procession formed — two wretched English officers, a bare-headed and 
tattered newspaper correspondent, four sailors with gold letters on the 
ribbons of their straw hats, about fifty soldiers and volunteers, and two 
or three railway men. The procession, surrounded by the Boer horse- 
men, started. The tired prisoners climbed the hills surrounding the 
place where there had been the fight, and they could see the engine 
going away beyond Frere Station, safe, and news would be carried to 
Estercourt, a good many of the troops and some of the wounded would 
escape. The Boers were not heartless. Seeing the condition of their 
prisoners, one of them said in good English: "Take your time; you 
need not walk fast." 

Another of them seeing the newspaper correspondent hatless, threw 
him a soldier's cap, one of the Irish Fusilier's caps taken, probably, near 
Ladysmith. For the prisoners knew of the surrender of the Irish Fusil- 
iers, and two other regiments. They were to learn much about the first 
battle of the war which they did not know when they were captured. 
The loss in that battle was 800 Boers and 250 British. The battle took 
place at Glencoe Camp, near Dundee, in Natal. 

The Boers had been seen near Ladysmith and an attack on that 



i68 



THE STORY OF 



town was expected when they suddenly appeared at Dundee Hill and 
prepared to carry the town. It was plain to be seen that the main point 
of attack had been the camp at Glencoe, and that the demonstrations at 
Ladysmith were merely to call the attention of the British off from the 
advance on Dundee. The Boer forces at Ladysmith, however, failed to 
act in full harmony with those at Dundee, and the British were able to 
send reinforcements to the men at Glencoe, who achieved a victory over 
the Boers. The Boers' fire did not do much damage, as their artillery 
was not as good as the British guns. After an hour the British guns 
silenced those of the Boers. 

The King's Royal Rifles and the Dublin Fusiliers were ordered 
out. They rushed up the hill and took the Boers' position, capturing 
their five guns. It is said that about 4000 Boers were engaged. The 
Boers were led by General Joubert, the British by Major-General Sir 
William Penn Symons, who was shot. The prisoners taken at the time 
the armored train was destroyed maybe heard a good many incidents 
connected with that battle, for the Boers were not ill tempered and 
talked freely. 

At last the prisoners reached the guns that had played on their train. 
Some men and officers of the Staats Artillery came up to the captured 
men. Adjutant Roos, the commander, made a polite salute. He said 
he regretted the unfortunate circumstances, he complimented the Eng- 
lish on their defence, he hoped his firing had not annoyed them; above 
all he wanted to know how the engine had been able to get away, and 
how the tracks could have been cleared of wreckage under his firing. 
He behaved as a good soldier should, with respect for his prisoners, with 
admiration for their courage. 

The prisoners waited near the guns for half an hour, while the Boer 
forces searched in the wreckage for dead and wounded. A few of the 
wounded were brought to where the prisoners were and laid on the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 169 

ground, though most of them were put in the shelter of the overturned 
trucks, for the rain was coming down pitilessly. 

After awhile the prisoners were ordered to march on, when on look- 
ing over the top of the hill they found that only about 300 men had at- 
tacked the train. This was part of a large force marching south under 
General Joubert, to attack Estercourt. Behind every hill were masses 
of mounted men, and from the rear rode long columns of mounted men. 
Evidently an important operation was in progress ; perhaps at Ester- 
court. The captors conducted their prisoners to a rough tent set in a 
hollow of one of the hills, probably General Joubert's headquarters. 
Here the prisoners were formed in a line and soon surrounded by Boers 
in mackintoshes. 

The newspaper correspondent in the soldier cap explained that he 
was not a soldier, but was travelling if not exactly for his health, at least 
for the health of a powerful newspaper whose editor expected him to get 
news of the war without making himself a part of it. The newspaper 
correspondent asked to see General Joubert. His papers were taken 
from him by a man who said he was a Field Cornet, and who, the news- 
paper correspondent afterward said, blew enough to be not only a cornet, 
but a trombone. The cornet promised that the papers should be seen 
by the General. And then they all waited in the rain. 

Then a mounted man suddenly came up and ordered the prisoners 
to march away towards Colenso. An escort of twenty men closed 
around them. The newspaper man demanded that he should be taken 
before General Joubert, or else his papers be given back to him. The 
Field Cornet had apparently blown himself away, so there was no answer 
to this demand except the word, "Voorwarts !" 

The prisoners tramped for six hours across sloppy fields and in 
tracks deep and slippery with mud, while the rain kept on falling, soak- 
ing wounded and well to the skin. 



170 THE STORY OF 

The Boer escort told the prisoners several times not to hurry, but 
to go as slowly as they pleased, and once they allowed them to halt for 
a few minutes. But they had neither food nor water, and in a state of 
almost exhaustion at last they saw with a feeling of thankfulness the tin 
roofs of Colenso. Here they were put in an iron shed near the railway 
station, the floor of which was full of torn railway guides and account 
books. The prisoners flung themselves down, worn out with shame, 
disappointment, the excitement of the morning, the misery of the pres- 
ent moment. 

Outside the Boers lighted two big fires, when they opened the doors 
of the iron shed and told the prisoners they could come out and dry 
themselves. A slaughtered ox lay on the ground, and pieces of the 
flesh were given to the prisoners, and these bits of beef they put on sticks 
and toasted over the fire and ate greedily. 

Other Boers, not of the escort, came to look at the captives. 
They entered readily into conversation with the new comers, especially 
the newspaper correspondent, who was always thinking of news to send 
to the editor. One of the Boers said that it was a great matter to face 
the power of England, yet they would drive the English out of South 
Africa forever, or else fight to the last man. The newspaper correspond- 
ent told him the Boers could not possibly win, that Pretoria would be 
taken in by the middle of March, and that the English had a hundred 
thousand soldiers. 

The Boer said, "I will wait." 

Then the newspaper correspondent said he hoped the Boers would 
come through the war all right and that they might live to see a happier 
and nobler South Africa. 

Then the Boer took off his blanket which had a hole in the middle 
so that it might be worn as a cloak by slipping the head through the hole, 
and gave it to the newspaper correspondent to sleep in. Then he went 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



171 



away. Night came, and the Boer who had the prisoners in charge, told 
them to carry forage into the shed to sleep on, and then the prisoners 
went into the iron house and the doors were locked. 

The newspaper correspondent could not sleep. He thought of the 
war, the reason of it, the chances of it. What tough, strong men these 
Boers were ! He thought of them as he had seen them in the morning 
riding forward through the rain, thousands of good riflemen having 
beautiful weapons, led by men of skill, moving like the wind and held up 
by iron constitutions, thinking always of God as the Old Testament God 
who would smite the enemies of His worshippers, hip and thigh, as he 
smote the Amalekites. Above the fall of rain that beat steadily and 
loudly on the metal roof of the hut in which he lay, the newspaper cor- 
respondent heard the sound of many voices raised in song. It was the 
Boers singing their evening psalm. So the newspaper correspondent 
thought that the war was wrong and unjust, that maybe Heaven was 
against the English, that maybe Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley 
would fall, that the Estercourt garrison would be killed, that foreign 
powers would interfere and that the English would indeed lose South 
Africa forever. The sound of the Boers' solemn hymn was in his ears, 
the rain seemed to beat it down into the hut where the prisoners were 
restlessly sleeping and dreaming of home. He thought of his editor far 
off, waiting for news, and above all he thought of that Boer who had be- 
lieved the English would be driven out of the land of the Africanders, and 
who had said, "I will wait." 



CHAPTER X. 

Reports from seat of war — Ladysmith and Colenso — Censorship of newspapers — 
Shelling of Mafeking — Fitting out of the "Maine" by women — Prisoners of war 
on the way to Pretoria — Story of Cecil Rhodes and the diamond operator — Pris- 
oners reach Pretoria — "On to Kimberley" — Defeat of Gatacre at Stormburg — 
Escape of newspaper correspondent, his hardships and gaining of his liberty. 

EWS from the seat of war was very scarce in England in 
November's early days. Various reports had been re- 
ceived in London, but as it was said they came from 
native sources they were held to be unreliable, though 
in only too many cases they were afterward confirmed 
as true. 

The Kaffirs were said to be very clever in perfectly 
understanding the situation and made up some of the stories that strag- 
gled over to England in spite of the cut down telegraphs in South Africa. 
Perhaps when the news did not suit the English it was called a Kaffir 
report, when on the contrary it fitted in with their wishes it was said to 
be a true version of facts. You will remember that during our Spanish 
war when the Spanish reports reached us our newspapers got out extra 
after extra, only in many instances to deny the news the next day, for 
from Spanish sources we received very few reports of American vic- 
tories. 

From such information as the English could rely on, it appeared 
that the campaign of General White had been a failure and that he had 
been outwitted by the Boers who had matters very much their own way 
in Natal. The English were very well aware of the danger that threat- 

173 




174 



THE STORY OF 



ened in this region, and the transports carrying troops were ordered to 
discharge their human freight at the ports nearest the seat of war, and 
that unless the Boers struck a blow within the next few days in Natal 
which should decide everything, there would soon be plenty of troops 
in Natal to protect British interests. 

But Ladysmith had practically fallen, and the Boers followed up 
this victory by occupying Colenso, and thus surrounded Ladysmith, 
cutting off the retreat of General White's army which was defending 
Ladysmith in a stubborn fashion. The town was isolated and no news 
that could be relied on had come from it, except that the British had 
made some brilliant sorties and had caused the Boers to fall back. 

Then had Ladysmith fallen? Well, the Boers had the upper hand, 
at any rate. The general idea was that the British War Office had im- 
portant news which it was suppressing. It was said at the beginning 
of the the war that the censorship of the telegrams would be most rigid, 
as the authorities had seen the danger of allowing too much to be 
known. This danger was understood during our war with Spain, when 
war news in many cases was held back. For the newspapers in printing 
all the details of the commanders and the work to be done was a double- 
edged weapon, for while it told the people of the doings of the soldiers, 
it also informed the enemy of our plans, and complicated matters. 

It was, however, stated in London that the Boers were shelling 
Ladysmith, that their guns were well handled, and that their batteries 
were hard to locate because they used smokeless powder. It was also 
said that the Boers were calling fresh forces together, and that unless 
the English had speedy aid the worst might be feared. News from 
Kimberley told that the British had required fresh forces to assist in the 
defence of the town, therefore the situation there must be grave. 

The latest news from Mafeking said that the Boers had been shell- 
ing the town since October 26th, but without bringing it to submission. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 177 

At Kimberley, a shell from the Boer guns had exploded a dynamite fac- 
tory, but without causing much harm. 

This about sums up the situation : The Boers were carrying on a 
serious attack on the towns of Mafeking and Kimberley on the west, and 
were surrounding Ladysmith on the east. They had captured two of 
England's best regiments, and were doing fine work with their artillery, 
which comprised modern guns from European factories. 

A report from Ladysmith stated that General White asked the 
Boers for permission to send away the women and children and the men 
who were not going to take part in the fight. General Joubert, in com- 
mand of the Boers, declined to give the permission. He said he could 
not allow the English to free themselves of the burden of supporting 
these people, for he knew that the shortness of provisions would do as 
much towards gaining him the victory as could be accomplished by the 
firing of his guns. He suggested, however, that General White should 
make a camp outside the city and in a place safe from the fire of the 
guns, to which the non-combatants and the sick and wounded might be 
sent, and this camp was arranged about four miles from the city. 

In London the women were doing what they could for their brave 
troops so far away. Lady Randolph Churchill, an American by birth, 
was securing the aid of her friends and other women towards fitting up 
a hospital ship for use in South African waters. This ship was called the 
Maine, for our English cousins also "remembered the Maine." The 
ship was fitted up with every requirement for the sick and wounded and 
was in personal charge of Lady Churchill herself, and sailed away. 

And there was our newspaper friend sleeping at last in the iron hut 
after the Boers' hymn was done, and dreaming of Ladysmith which he 
wanted so badly to reach that he might send home reports of the condi- 
tion of affairs to his editor. 

In the morning the prisoners roused. They ate a little more of the 



i 7 8 



THE STORY OF 



beef they had cooked round the bon fires the night before, and drank 
some rain water from a large puddle. Then they told the Boers they 
were ready to go on. The fierce old Africander farmers cantered their 
horses and closed round the column of sorry looking prisoners. They 
marched along wading gullies, and the sun coming out, the heat was 
intense. Once they halted at a little field hospital composed of a dozen 
tents and wagons with big red cross flags waving above. The red cross 
people looked kindly at the prisoners who, taking up the line of march, 
plodded on to Nelthorpe. Here they began to approach the Dutch 
lines of investment around Ladysmith, and a half hour more brought 
them to a strong line of pickets, and here they were ordered to halt and 
rest. Nearly two hundred Boers swarmed about the captives, asking 
questions — What did the prisoners think of Africa? Did they like 
armored trains? How long would the English keep up the' fighting? 

One of the prisoners said, "The war will end when you are beaten." 

Then the Boers shouted with laughter. "You can never beat us," 
they said. "We have taken Mafeking. You will find your General, 
Baden Powell, waiting for you, a prisoner, at Pretoria. Kimberley will 
fall this week. Cecil Rhodes, who said he was safe there, is trying to 
escape in a balloon disguised as a lady. A fine lady he is. And did you 
ever hear about Rhodes and that time he wanted to corner the diamond 
market? Well, he posed as a buyer and bid on a big lot of stones a rival 
operator showed him. He told the operator he would buy the lot, but 
that he had a great wish to feast his eyes on a bushel of diamonds, and 
that if the operator would put his diamonds in one pile to make a bushel, 
Mr. Rhodes would be very much obliged to him. The operator threw 
together a bushel of diamonds. Mr. Rhodes told him how much obliged 
he was to him, and went away. But the operator had forgotten that it 
takes months to properly sort a bushel of diamonds so that they may 
be sold. The operator lost six months in sorting his diamonds, during 



SOUTH AFRICA. 179 

which time Mr. Rhodes, whose diamonds were not mixed, enjoyed a 
monopoly of the business and sold on his own terms. Smart, wasn't it? 
Oh, yes, Mr. Rhodes is smart, but he will never get out of Kimberley as 
a lady. And what about Lady smith? Well, in ten days Ladysmitn will 
be ours. Listen!" The prisoners heard the heavy boom of a gun. 
"That's always going on," said the Boer. "Oh, you'll find all the Eng- 
lish army at Pretoria. If it wasn't for the seasickness we'd go over and 
take England." 

Then there were cries, "Say, where is Buller?" A prisoner replied, 
"He will come when the army is ready." 

"But," said a Boer, "we have beaten the army." 

"The war has not begun yet," returned the Englishman. 

Very soon after this the prisoners were ordered to march again, and 
they began to move to the eastward in the direction of Bulwana Hill. 
They could hear the guns employed in the bombardment of Ladysmith, 
and the occasional crack of the British artillery could be distinguished. 
After the prisoners had crossed the railway track beyond Nelthorpe they 
caught sight of something that told them they were near friends. Far 
up above the hills hung a speck of gold beater's skin. It was the balloon 
in Ladysmith used for military observations and which the Boer had 
told the prisoners was to be used for the departure of Cecil Rhodes who 
could leave the country only by going up in the air. The prisoners kept 
their eyes on the balloon till it was hidden by the hills. Then they forded 
Klip River breast high in the water and trudged on. After ten hours 
marching they reached the camp where they were to stay for the night. 
Here they were given some beef and tea. The next morning the pris- 
oners were told they were to march five hours more. They were given 
some more beef and tea. The Boers explained that they had nothing 
better themselves. 

Then the prisoners were marched away. It was about 1 1 o'clock 



180 THE STORY OF 

when they reached Elandslaagte Station. A train awaited them. 
There were six or seven closed cars for the men. The afternoon passed, 
and the train passed near Dundee, the prisoners crowding to look out at 
a place where there had been lots of good fighting. As night was about 
to close in they saw Majuba Hill, a dark mountain with sad memories 
for the English. The Boer guards pointed out where they had mounted 
their guns to defend Laing's Nek. The train now approached the fron- 
tier. It was quite dark when it reached Volksrust, and the prisoners 
were in the Boer country. The platform of the station was crowded 
with armed Boers. It appeared that two new commandos, or bevies of 
troops, had been called out and were waiting for trains to take them to 
the front. Besides, a strong raiding party had just come back from 
British Swaziland. 

The car windows were soon blocked with the bearded faces of the 
Boers. After awhile a young woman pushed her way to a window and 
looked in at the prisoners. 

"Why," she said, "you are not so bad looking after all." 

For hours the newspaper correspondent had been furious that the 
Field Cornet had not sent his papers to General Joubert and so found 
out that he was not a British soldier but a harmless correspondent. 
The Field Cornet — or leader of the fighting forces of the district in which 
he is the magistrate in time of peace — had not shown up, and the news- 
paper far away was missing news from Ladysmith. When the young 
a woman said the prisoners were not so bad looking after all, he took it 
to himself and thought he was a better thing to gaze at than the Boer 
soldiers. 

Though the faces of the Boers were plain and rough, but kind, 
their little, narrow eyes were the most unpleasant feature. They were 
honest, ignorant peasants with their wits about them. 

Before the train left Volksrust the guards were changed and the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



183 



burghers who had captured the prisoners were to return to the front, 
and the police were to take their place as guards. A lovely old gentle- 
man, who had helped capture the prisoners, came up and explained that 
it was he who had thoughtfully placed the stone on the track which had 
wrecked the armored train. He said he hoped the prisoners bore him 
no malice. They said, by no means ; they would do as much for him at 
any time. Then the prisoners and the lovely old gentleman said good- 
bye, and the prisoners lay down and tried to go to sleep. 

It was near mid-day when the train reached Pretoria. The day 
was fine, the sun shone brightly. There was a crowd of people waiting 
to receive the prisoners, women with bright parasols, loafers and raga- 
muffins, fat, old burghers too weighty to ride to the front, and a long line 
of white helmetted policemen, or zarps, as they are called. Some one 
unlocked the car doors and told the prisoners to come out, and in a little 
while they were standing in the blazing sun, and they heard the click of 
cameras that were snapping their pictures. The prisoners formed in 
rank. And now the newspaper correspondent began to hate the Boers. 
For the simple farmer burghers at the front who were bravely fighting 
for their land were exchanged for mean looking officials of all nations — 
red-faced, snub-nosed Hollanders, oily Portuguese half-castes, and the 
like. 

A hand was laid on the arm of the newspaper correspondent. It 
was the hand of the police sergeant. "You are not an officer," he said; 
"you go with the common soldiers," and he led the newspaper corres- 
pondent across the open space to where the men were formed in a col- 
umn of fours. The crowd grinned, the cameras clicked again. The 
newspaper correspondent fell in with the soldiers. But he told the 
soldiers not to laugh or smile, and they became serious men again, 
whereupon the newspaper correspondent saw that he had influence 
with the soldiers and it set him to wondering if with the prisoners some- 



184 THE STORY OF 

thing some day might not be done which should set them free before 
their time. At last, however, another official came up and took the 
newspaper correspondent over to where the captive officers were, for 
the officers were to be separated from the men. 

And then they were all marched off, the soldiers to the camps on the 
race course, the officers and the newspaper correspondent to the States 
Model School's prison. Here the officers were joined by sixty other 
British officers who were also "held by the enemy," and they settled 
down to what promised to be a long and weary incarceration. While 
these prisoners were waiting for release in Pretoria, stirring events had 
been reported in England. Sir Redvers Buller was pushing forward one 
force of men to relieve Ladysmith and another force for the relief of 
Kimberley. The Boers were keeping up a persistent bombardment of 
both places, though little damage was done, and the residents of Kimber- 
ley, especially Mr. Cecil Rhodes, laughed at the besiegers and made light 
of the affair. In a letter that was sent out of Kimberley by carrier pig- 
eon it was said that up to the time of writing the letter the only casualty 
caused by the Boer guns was the smashing of one earthen pot, the frag- 
ments of which had been sold at good prices for the benefit of a charity. 
Social festivities of all kinds were said to be in full swing, the British 
there apparently taking the siege as a sort of festival. 

Surprise was expressed that the Boers did not press forward and 
take the town by assault. It was said they were very cautious, as usual* 
for they knew that an enormous force was daily being landed by the 
British at the Cape, and that their last chance was to make daring moves 
that would crush the enemy before reinforcements could arrive. Then 
it was said that Cecil Rhodes, who was at the root of the war, was quite 
ready to have it stopped, for he had secured the privilege for which he 
had been working, namely the carrying through of a great railway in 
which he was interested, from Cairo to Cape Town. Germany had signed 



SOUTH AFRICA. 185 

an agreement with the British South African Company consenting 
to allow the railroad to pass over her territory in consideration of cer- 
tain advantages in regard to extensions of this road with her own West 
African possessions. The concession for carrying a telegraph line along 
the same route had also been obtained, and as soon as the Boer trouble 
was over, the work on it would go on. It is darkly hinted that the war 
with the Transvaal was considered necessary to convince England of the 
pressing need there is for a route by which she can convey her troops 
easily to her South African holdings. At a banquet in London, Lord 
Salisbury, the British Prime Minister, declared that England was fight- 
ing to assure her supremacy in South Africa, and in assuring it, to secure 
equal rights to all men in that portion of the country in which she holds 
sway. He thought the outcome of the war would be the development 
and benefit of the Boers. He concluded his remarks by announcing 
that England would not submit to any interference from other powers, 
but would end her war in the Transvaal by conquering the Boers. But 
Europe was keeping out of the trouble. France made a few unfriendly 
comments, but Germany refused to give an opinion, and Holland had 
asked the representative of the Boers, Dr. Leyds, to discontinue his 
visits to that country until the trouble was over. 

Then General Lord Methuen pushed on to Kimberley. At Mod- 
der River, which is considered the key to Kimberley, the Boers made a 
determined stand, but the British forces were not to be checked. They 
threw themselves on the enemy with resistless force, and after a fierce 
fight which lasted ten hours the British were victorious and drove the 
Boers from their position. 

Lord Methuen, in reporting the fight, said it was one of the hardest 
and most trying in the annals of the British army. For ten hours, in 
the burning sun, the men fought without food or water. 

Modder River is only twenty-five miles from Kimberley, and now 



i86 



THE STORY OF 



the British cry was, "On to Kimberley !" The greatest enthusiasm pre- 
vailed in London when the news reached there. But the feeling was 
gaining ground that in spite of successes the English had a long and 
serious war on their hands. The recent set backs experienced by the 
Boers did not appear to have discouraged them ; they were as confident 
of success as ever. 

Ladysmith was in a bad way, and if the British forces did not speed- 
ily come to its relief it would be forced to surrender. This would be a 
severe blow to the English for there were large and valuable stores in 
the town, ammunition and the like, which would of course have to be 
abandoned if the city were given up. Rations at Ladysmith were also 
low, and sickness had broken out. Still the British held the town, and 
the Boer artillery which at first was not effective in its fire, was now bet- 
ter served and reports said it was doing much damage. 

Then the reports came that General Methuen's victory at Modder 
River did not appear to have given him the advantage he had antici- 
pated. The Boers who were forced back in this engagement, had taken 
fresh positions between the British camp and Kimberley, and were for- 
tifying them. The British in their turn were building a bridge over the 
Modder River and reconstructing the railroads so that they could easily 
bring up reinforcements. 

The two forces before Kimberley were so well matched that the bat- 
tle which would soon be fought was expected to be decisive and have 
great influence on the future of the war. 

It was also stated, in the meagre and contradictory reports that 
reached London from the seat of war, that in the western, or Hopetown 
district, the Dutch population had risen and would organize a force to 
oppose the British advance. All the Africanders, or people of Dutch 
descent, in South Africa had joined in the fighting, those under English 
rule had risen and revolted against their rulers. It was also reported that 



SOUTH AFRICA. 1S7 

President Steyn, of the Orange Free State, had gone to the front where 
his presence greatly encouraged the Boers. President Kruger was also 
anxious to go, but his advisers urged him not to do such a risky thing. 

At the same time it was said that the English were arousing the 
Kaffirs, with the intention of having them take part in the war, and this 
rumor caused much comment, for the reason that England had ex- 
pressed lier determination not to allow the blacks to fight. 

On the 8th of December the British troops, under General White 
made a successful sortie from Ladysmith. They attacked the Boers, 
destroying two of their field pieces, and captured the Maxim gun which 
had done such destructive work. 

On the 10th, General Gatacre, commanding three thousand British 
troops and two batteries of artillery, tried to surprise the Boer force at 
Stormburg. He was misled by his guides and found himself in a very 
dangerous position, from which he was forced to retire. He suffered 
heavy loss, and in addition to the killed and wounded reported six hun- 
dred and thirty officers and men missing. 

And there in Pretoria the men who had been on the armored train 
heard all these reports and felt like caged rats as they waited in their 
prisons. 

The newspaper correspondent was frantic ; he could have reported 
so much interesting news to his editor. He determined to escape. 
He waited for an opportunity to get out, for he must go to Ladysmith 
and report the rousing events there. The British defeat at Stormburg 
decided him. There was an iron fence ten feet high around the prison. 
He was young and ten feet are only ten feet. But there were sentries 
armed with rifles and revolvers. He formed a plan. After watching, 
he discovered that when the sentries went their rounds, there was a little 
piece of the top wall which they could not see at certain moments of their 
walks. Next to the prison wall was a garden. How to get out of the 



188 THE STORY OF 

garden, how to pass through the streets unnoticed, how to evade the 
patrols that surrounded the town, and how to get over the two hundred 
and eighty miles to the Portuguese frontiers were questions not to be 
attended to at present. He determined to try to answer the first ques- 
tion, which was, could he get over the prison wall, on the night of the 
nth of December? But that night a sentry stood exactly opposite the 
very part of the wall to be attempted. The next day he was desperate. 
Night came again ; he waited till the dinner bell sounded, when he 
strolled across the prison yard and hid in one of the offices. Through 
a chink he watched the sentries. For half an hour two that were on 
guard remained obstinately in the wrong places. Then all at once one 
of them walked up to his comrade and began to talk. Their backs were 
turned to the newspaper correspondent. He darted from his hiding 
place, ran to the wall, jumped and caught the top of it, saw the sentries 
still engaged in conversation fifteen yards away, and lowered himself 
silently into the garden next door and crouched among the shrubs. 
Then he knew that boldness was necessary. There was a gate in the 
garden wall. He went up to it and walked out. There was a sentry 
five yards away, but he did not look. The newspaper correspondent got 
to the middle of the road, and walked along leisurely, humming a tune — 
he must appear careless. The streets were full of burghers, but. they 
paid no attention to him. Gradually he reached the suburbs and stop- 
ped to consider. He had money in his pocket and some chocolate, with 
which the English soldiers were supplied by their government because 
of its great food value. But Delagoa Bay was three hundred miles 
away, and that way lay liberty. He formed a plan. He must find the 
Delagoa Bay Railway. He looked at the stars, and knowing a few of 
them, found out which way was south. He walked south for some time 
when he struck a railway track. What railway was it? He walked for 
two hours or so and saw the lights of a station. He left the track and 



SOUTH AFRICA. 189 

hid in a ditch a couple of hundred yards beyond the station. An hour 
passed ; he grew impatient. Suddenly there was a whistle and the rattle 
of an approaching train, then he saw the yellow headlight of the engine. 
The train waited a few minutes at the station, and started again. The 
newspaper correspondent crouched beside the track, he must wait till the 
engine passed, or the light of it might show where he was. The train 
came on. He pulled himself towards the train, caught at something, 
missed, grabbed again, caught hold of something, was swung off his feet, 
drew himself up and found himself on a truck of a freight train. The 
truck had bags of coal in it. He buried himself in the coal, and actually 
fell asleep. He woke with a start. He did not know where he was 
going, but he knew he must leave the train at daybreak and wait till night 
when he might be able to board another train. He crawled out to the 
couplings and waited till he thought it was time to drop. The train was 
going not too fast, he took hold of the iron handle at the back of the 
truck and jumped. The next moment he found himself in a ditch, 
shaken but not hurt. He was very thirsty and he found a gully of clear 
water and drank. The dawn broke, and he saw that the railroad track 
ran towards the sunrise. He had taken the right road. As it became 
broad daylight he entered a small grove of trees that grew on the side of 
a deep ravine. Here he decided to wait till dusk. During the day he 
ate some more chocolate, and this and the hot day produced a violent 
thirst. But he dared not leave the little wood to look for water, for peo- 
ple now and then were in sight. The long day came to a close at last. 
Kaffirs went along with their cattle. The dark came. Then he hurried 
to the railway, stopping on the way to drink long and eagerly from the 
pool which had given him drink once before. He waited ; no train came. 
Then he walked for hours. Every bridge was guarded by armed men. 
There were many villages. He had to make wide circuits, and went 
through bogs till he was drenched. He was nearly exhausted, and at 



igo THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

last lay down in a ditch to sleep. But he would not give out. The 
next few days he struggled on, getting food at great risks, for he knew he 
might be captured at any time. On the fifth day he once more waited 
for a train beside a railroad track. On the sixth day the chance he had 
waited for came. He found a train labelled to Lorenzo Marques stand- 
ing on a siding. He looked for a suitable spot for boarding it, for he 
dared not do it at the station. He climbed up on a truck laden with 
sacks of some soft merchandise, and he found crevices among them by 
which he managed to work his way and lie concealed. The heat was 
stifling, but he determined that nothing should get him from his hiding 
place till he reached Portuguese territory. The journey lasted two 
days. He dreaded lest the trucks should be searched for contrabands, 
and once the searchers came, but they did not look deep enough. He 
reached Delagoa Bay at last, and crawled out, weary, dirty, hungry, but 
free. He bought clothes and sat down to dinner with a real table cloth 
and glasses. And fortune smiled, for the steamer "Induna" was to 
leave that very night for Durban. 

Here he learned the official news of General Qatacre's repulse at 
Stormburg on December ioth, when the General was not wilfully mis- 
led by his guides, but they were mistaken about the distance and thought 
the Boers' position could be carried. General Methuen reported from 
Modder River that all was quiet at Kimberley and Mafeking, and that 
the Boers attempted to mount a forty pounder on a ridge overlooking 
the river but that he had a lyddite gun dragged to a ridge opposite and 
fired on the Boers till they Were compelled to abandon their post, lyd- 
dite, the new and powerful explosive, proving too much for them. The 
newspaper correspondent also heard that a British column had started 
to the relief of Ladysmith, where he was bound himself. Then he got 
on board the "Induna." 



CHAPTER XI. 

Check of General Methuen — Magersfontein — The queen's grief — Hospitals at Pieter- 
maritzburg — Strength of British force — Christmas Day in camp — New year opens 
well for English — British demonstration before Colenso — Force for relief of 
Ladysmith — Confidence in General Buller — Capture of Potgieter's Ferry — Arri- 
val of General Buller — Operations for relief of Ladysmith — To Springfield. 

HE voyage of the "Induna" from Delagoa Bay to Durban 
was prosperous, and on the afternoon of December 23d 
the ship reached harbor. Here those on board learned 
that there had been a sad week for the English. Hardly 
had the world heard of the defeat of General Gatacre 
than it was known that a serious check had met General Methuen. 
This commander had considered the time fitted for an advance to the re- 
lief of Kimberley, but he' met with such a severe repulse that it was 
feared he might not be able to retain his position on Modder River and 
be compelled to fall back to the Orange River. The Highland Brigade 
suffered severely in this engagement, which took place at Magersfon- 
tein. In his despatch Lord Methuen spoke of the splendid work done 
by the Gordon Highlanders. This regiment was fresh from India where 
it had distinguished itself. In the present engagement, though, it lost 
its leader, Lieutenant Colonel Downman, who while leading his men 
in an assault on the Boer trenches fell, mortally wounded, The general 
commanding the Highland Brigade was also killed, while the regiment 
known as the Black Watch also lost heavily. 

The grief in London was terrible, rich and poor, noble and humble 
were all grief stricken. The Marquis of Winchester was among the 

*93 




i 9 4 THE STORY OF 

killed, as were a number of prominent officers who were members of the 
great families of England. 

Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, who had suffered from so many wars 
during her long reign, was bowed down with sorrow. It was said that 
in the midst of her ordinary occupations she would suddenly break 
down and burst into tears. She went about visiting the widows and 
families of the dead soldiers, and personally reviewed the forces that 
were despatched to the seat of war. The Queen had hoped that her 
reign would end in peace, and in the extreme old age this new war was a 
great blow to her. Besides, it is probable the Queen thought the war 
was not necessary, and that a cooler and wiser man than Mr. Chamber- 
lain might have avoided it without blemishing the honor of England. 
After the defeat of General Gatacre, followed by the repulse of General 
Lord Methuen, the British War Office sent a despatch to Sir Redvers 
Buller ordering him to advance to the relief of Ladysmith. The au- 
thorities were so confident that General Buller would carry out his or- 
ders that they let the news leak out, and on the night of the 15th of De- 
cember London was full of rumors of a brilliant victory for England. 
But the brilliant victory did not occur. Instead, the great man in 
whom all hopes were centered was defeated by the Boers in an effort to 
cross the Tugela River in his intended advance. 

There were two points at which this river could be forded. The 
General sent his forces to one of them, but rinding that it was strongly 
guarded he ordered his men to proceed to the other ford two miles 
farther up the river. 

The Boers had their men placed in such a position that to pass the 
ford the British would have to encounter a cross fire from their guns. 
The British commander ordered his men forward to open fire on the 
Boers and drive them back from the river so that the troops could pass. 
The artillery officer in command brought his battery too close to the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



«95 



brink of the river. His wish was to get within effective range of the 
enemy, but he seems to have forgotten that his first duty was to protect 
his own men, and that by advancing too close he exposed them to dan- 
ger. Hardly were the batteries in place than the opposite banks of the 
river were seen to be swarming with Boer sharpshooters, who killed the 
horses belonging to the guns and poured out such a terrific fire over the 
spot that the gunners were obliged to abandon their field pieces, and 
the British were forced to retire. 

Hearing this fresh disaster, England called out all the reserves, the 
men to be hurried to the Cape as fast as ships could take them. Besides 
this, two of the best generals in the army were to be sent — Lord Rob- 
erts, of Kandahar, as commander-in-chief, and Lord Kitchener, of 
Khartoum, as chief of staff. 

Lord Kitchener's record in the Soudan is familiar to most of us, his 
bravery there, his tact and military diplomacy. Lord Roberts won his 
title in the Afghan war through a famous march he made from Kabul 
to Kandahar. He was commander-in-chief of the army in India from 
1885 t° I &93> an d was much loved by his soldiers who nicknamed him 
Bobs Bahadur, Bahadur being Hindustani for hero. 

The newspaper man heard queer tidings when he reached Durban, 
and eagerly read a month's newspapers that told him how much he had 
missed while he had been that month a prisoner in Pretoria. 

He hurried to the train and so reached Pietermaritzburg. Here 
he visited the hospitals, which were long barracks. Before the war they 
had been filled with healthy men, now they were crammed with sick and 
wounded. There were grim sights here, men swathed in bandages, 
nurses waiting beside closed doors that the serious cases inside might 
not be disturbed, doctors hurrying with solemn faces from one building 
to another. Men wheeled in stretchers upon which lay motionless forms, 
or forms writhing and tumbling about in agony. The less seriously 



i 9 6 



THE STORY OF 



wounded talked of the war, as they were talking of it in London before 
they came out, as London was talking of it now. For the immediate 
result of the bad news from the Transvaal was the rush of young Eng- 
lishmen to enlist in the service of their country. Men flocked to head- 
quarters from every direction. A report stated that the loss of Generals 
Gatacre and Buller was over ten thousand, and twenty or fifty or a hun- 
dred thousand men were ready to go and take their places. The loss 
was not as great as was at first reported, but it was large enough to 
rouse all England. The newspaper man in the hospital at Pietermaritz- 
burg saw some of those who had been disabled at Stromburg and heard 
the stories of the defeat. The defeat astonished the wounded men, they 
could not understand the stubborn resistance of the Boers when surely 
the Boers knew it was only a matter of time till they should be con- 
quered. The Boers were brave, they said, and perhaps all the braver 
because of fighting for a forlorn hope. They spoke of the Africander 
general, his bravery, his strategy, his military excellence, how his men 
never swerved from his least command, how he moved among them sad 
of face and quiet of voice, a power and a strength. They spoke of 
Kruger, the unbending one. They hated him and accused him of being 
responsible for keeping up the war, told of the immense wealth he would 
take with him when he should at last be compelled to run away. 
Though they called him an old lion, too, and knew that he was honest 
in what he did — were not his sons and his sons' sons also fighting and 
taking their share of the hardships of war? All this and more the news- 
paper man heard. 

Then he hastened away by the night mail northward to the camps. 

It was still dark when the train passed Estecourt, but morning had 
come when Frere was reached. Many changes had taken place. The 
hills which the newspaper man had last seen black with the figures of 
Boer riflemen were now occupied by English pickets, and the valley 



SOUTH AFRICA, 



199 



was crowded with the white tents of the British army now in possession. 
All along the railway new sidings had been built and trains concerned 
in the business of army supplies occupied them. 

The Boers still held Colenso, and their forces occupied Natal. It 
was true that thousands of troops had arrived to make a break in the 
situation, that the British army had advanced ten miles, but Ladysmith 
was still locked in the grasp of the Boers and the distant booming of 
bombardment which had been heard by the newspaper man two months 
before still kept up. 

The Boers could but be admired for their strategy. They aimed at 
two things: To keep the war out of their own territory, confining it 
on the soil under British protection, and to confine it to rocky and 
broken ridges suited to their tactics. 

Yet the British had come on, rocks and stones been attempted, and 
the Boers had conquered pretty well. Before the war began the Eng- 
lish said, "Let them attack us in Natal if they dare." The Boers came, 
and the British retired. Then the Briton said, "Never mind ; the forces 
were scattered. Now that all the Natal Field Force is massed at Lady- 
smith, let the Boers dare to attack us." 

The Boers came. The British force massed at Ladysmith sailed 
out to meet them. The English said, "By to-morrow there will not be 
a Boer within twenty miles." By the evening of October 30th, Sir 
George White's whole command of twenty squadrons, six batteries and 
eleven battalions were thrown back into town with three hundred 
wounded and nearly a thousand prisoners. Then, the Boers reached 
further. Did they mean to try and blockade Ladysmith? That was 
ridiculous — send a battalion to Colenso to keep communication open, 
that was all that was needed. So the Dublin Fusiliers went to Colenso. 
Two days later the Boers cut the railway south of Ladysmith at Pieters, 
shelled the garrison out of Colenso and locked the English force in 



200 THE STORY OF 

Ladysmith. Two months passed and things were not changed, for these 
Boers knew how to fight. Then the army began to come. Its com- 
mander, knowing the country, would have liked to go through the Free 
State and liberate Ladysmith at Bloemfontein, but the War Office de- 
cided otherwise. The army came with great force, and the Boers held 
the key still. Finally Sir Redvers Buller came with forces. The fight 
at Colenso took place and the British leaders learned that the blockade 
of Ladysmith was solid. Another division hurried up, battery after bat- 
tery, till now there were two cavalry and six infantry brigades, and nearly 
sixty guns. It was with this force that the British hoped to break 
through the Boer lines surrounding Ladysmith. The town had stood 
two months of seige and bombardment, food and ammunition were run- 
ning low, disease had crept in. How long could it hold out? — that was 
the question everywhere — how long could Ladysmith hold out? Mean- 
while all was quiet in the camps. 

And then came Christmas Day, the anniversary of Him who wished 
"Peace on the earth, good will to men." No big shells were fired into 
the Boer camp that morning, and the Boers remained peaceful all day. 
Both armies attended divine service in the morning and prayed for 
Heaven's blessing on their causes. 

In the afternoon the British had athletic sports, and were cheerful 
and merry. The Boers shovelled away at their trenches. In the eve- 
ning the British had Christmas dinner in camp, roast beef, plum pudding. 
In the Boer camps there may have been equal good cheer, and the smoke 
of their pipes rose up in the clear atmosphere. 

Christmas week there was picket firing, but no fight. On New 
Year's Day two hundred Boers set out and attacked the English picket 
on the right. The picket, composed of the South African Light Horse, 
fell back. The Boers followed, but did not notice that eight troopers 
had been dropped behind some rocks. So that when twelve Boers at- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



201 



tempted to follow up the picket, they were met by a fire of musketry and 
went off with five riderless horses, three men lying dead on the ground. 
The New Year opened well for the English. Captain Gough, of the 16th 
Lancers, made his way along a depression and all at once discovered 
Boers drinking tea in their camp, 1800 yards away. The English fired 
on the tea drinkers. The Boers jumped up, and in a few moments there 
was a rattle all along the opposite lines, and then a Maxim gun took part, 
till at last the venturesome English retired. Also on New Year's Day 
the Canadian troops and Queenslanders came across a raiding party of 
Boers, hunted and shot them among the rocks till the burghers hoisted 
a white flag, and there were forty prisoners and twenty killed and 
wounded. 

Then came good news for the English from East London. Gen- 
eral Gatacre was carefully patching up the opening misfortune of his 
campaign, and had seized Dordrecht. The best news of all for the 
English came from Arundel, near Colesberg, where Generals French 
and Brabazon were "coaxing" the Boers back out of the colony. 

Perhaps, said the English, the tide of war had turned, and that 1900 
was to mark the beginning of British policy throughout South Africa. 
And then came January 6th. It was boom, thud, thud, boom, thud, 
thud, at two o'clock in the black morning. It was Ladysmith of course, 
such cannonading went on there all the time. But the reports grew 
more frequent, and at last they mingled into one great roar. Never 
before had there been such bombarding — cannonading, then the sharp 
spiteful discharge of field pieces. What was happening? At Chievely 
the camp of the English wondered. Another attack by the garrison? 
Or was it a general sortie? Or perhaps the Boers were delivering the 
long expected assault. 

The troops at Maritzburg had breakfast, the terrible cannonading 
keeping up. Until half-past ten there was no letting up of the sounds. 



202 



THE STORY OF 



As the day grew older the sounds gradually died away. At noon there 
arrived at Chievely a message by heliograph : "General attack all sides 
by Boers — everywhere repulsed — fight still going on." 

At one o'clock an orderly galloped up with the order for the whole 
force at Chieveley to turn out at once. The camp sprang from its lunch- 
eon. Some said there was to be a general attack on Colenso while the 
army of the Boers was busy at Ladysmith. But no serious operation 
was intended; the force was merely to make a demonstration before 
Colenso with the hope of bringing some of the Boers back from Lady- 
smith and so relieving the pressure on Sir George White. 

But the demonstration was a fine affair. First, the mounted forces 
threw out patrols all along the front. The squadrons made a line behind 
these. The mounted infantry and Carabineers formed the left, the 
South African Light Horse the centre, and the Hussars and other 
mounted infantry the right. Behind all this marched line after line of 
men ten yards apart, two hundred yards between the lines, spreading 
over an immense expanse of country, and looking like a great army. 
Behind these again were artillery and wagons, and then the naval bat- 
tery, which began to throw shells into Colenso. The cavalry soon 
cleared the front, squadrons wheeled about, the patrols retreated. The 
South African Light Horse were stationed in the rear of a hill, and here 
the staff took their position. 

The Boers, seen through field glasses, seemed to be deceived, for 
they galloped in little companies into their trenches, which were deep 
enough to shelter man and horse. Large bodies had begun to counter- 
march from Ladysmith. 

The infantry halted some three thousand yards from the Boers' po- 
sition, and the artillery which consisted of fourteen guns got into action. 
It was now nearly five o'clock. Dark thunder clouds were in the sky. 

The bombardment and the storm broke over the Boer entrench- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



ments at one and the same time. The lightning was fierce. The noise 
of guns thundered out, and bursting guns raised great clouds of dust. 
And the thunder in the sky was like an echo of that of the guns, deep, 
solemn and terrible. This was what is called a demonstration, and was 
made in favor of Ladysmith whose garrison was reduced to eating mule 
sausages and other peculiar food, and were bombarded night and day. 

But the Boers refused to be drawn out by the demonstration, and 
though very likely annoyed by the bombardment of the English troops, 
did not reply by a single shot. At seven o'clock the English gave up 
trying to induce the Boers to answer them. It had been decided to 
leave the English troops fronting the Boers till night, the idea being to 
let the Africanders think a night attack was intended. But as some of 
the divisions had turned out without their dinner it was thought best not 
to keep them under arms any longer, so they went back to camp. 

There they found news from Ladysmith — -"Enemy everywhere re- 
pulsed for the present." That night the troops at Chieveley tried to 
congratulate Ladysmith, and a search light flashed on the clouds the 
Morse code of communication. But the Boers saw it and interferred 
with their own search light, so that the dots and dashes flashed by the 
British were confused by the dots and dashes of the Boers. The next 
day the Boers in great numbers surprised the pickets around Ladysmith 
and began a general attack on the line of outposts. The fighting be- 
came very close and some of the British trenches around the town were 
taken thee times. But every time General Hamilton flung out the 
Boers by counter attacks. Then Colonel Park led out the Devon Reg- 
iment and drove away the Boers at the point of the bayonet. 

By night the Boers were repulsed at every point, and with great 
slaughter. The bayonet was the most powerful weapon the English 
army had in South Africa. Firearms kill many, but an enemy run away 
from the bayonet. 



204 THE STORY OF 

About that time it looked as though the trials of the besieged in 
Ladysmith were nearly over. Sir Charles Warren's division marched to 
Frere. All the hospitals were cleared ready for those who might need 
them. It was thought that Ladysmith would be relieved in the next 
week. Rumors of an intended move were circulated. January 6th 
orders were given to clear the Pietermaritzburg hospitals. On the 8th 
an ambulance train took away the patients from the field hospitals at 
Frere, and made room for new comers. The same evening there arrived 
seven hundred civilian stretcher bearers, men who had volunteered to 
carry the wounded under fire. The army ungratefully nick-named 
them "body snatchers." 

There were other indications of approaching activities. The com- 
missariat department had accumulated supplies, twenty-one days' ra- 
tions packed in wagons. Then orders to march at dawn arrived. 
Waiting was over'; action had begun; Ladysmith was to be relieved. 
The force for the relief of Ladysmith comprised 19,000 infantry, 3,000 
cavalry and 60 guns. All were busy, entrenching, making redoubts 
and shelter pits, or block houses of railroad iron, and the packing up 
ready for march as the day closed in. 

In the morning they started. With them went ox-wagons piled 
high with all kinds of packages and drawn sometimes by ten or twelve 
pairs of oxen; mule wagons, ambulance wagons with big Red Cross 
flags, ammunition carts, artillery, slaughter cattle, and last of the line, 
the naval battery with its enormous pieces dragged by long strings of 
animals and in charge of straw-hatted, yellow Khaki-clad blue-jackets. 

After marching three miles they reached the place where the rail- x 
road from Frere joined the one from Chieveley. Pretorious's farm was 
reached ; it was a tin-roofed house, a few sheds for cattle, some trees, and 
a pond. Here the Royal Dragoons were drawn up. The Dragoons 
staid at the farm, which was to be the camping place for a division that 



SOUTH AFRICA. 20% 

night. All the rest of the mounted forces and a battery of artillery went 
forward to seize the bridge across the Little Tugela at Springfield. On 
they went, winding in and out among the green hills of Natal. They 
crossed the bridge and entered a green valley in front of which was 
Drakensburg. Then they neared Springfield. They thought if the en- 
emy did not oppose them, that same enemy would blow up the bridge. 
Word was brought that not a Boer was to be seen. Captain Grough, 
taking one man with him, had crossed the bridge in safety and had ex- 
plored three miles on the other side, had seen no Boers and felt like, 
pushing on to Potgieter's to make certain there were none around. 

So they came safely to Springfield, which was composed of three 
houses, a long wooden bridge, a few farms with the houses with tin roofs, 
and still no Boers were seen. The orders were to seize the bridge. 
This was done. Then everybody crossed, and looked about for some- 
thing to do. 

Other patrols came in, and all told the same tale of seeing no Boers. 
Then why not seize the heights above Potgieter's? But the orders had 
said they were to go to Springfield, not a word else. But orders were 
not always obeyed and here was a chance. But, "Forward !" 

And they went on. Three hundred men and two guns were left to 
hold the Springfield bridge, seven hundred men and four guns went on 
to Potgieter's Ferry. They reached the heights commanding the ferry 
at six o'clock. They found it a strong position, strengthened by walls 
with loop-holes in them, and it was unoccupied and unguarded. The 
whole force climbed to the top of the hills, and dragged the guns with 
them. After that they sent back to tell what they had done, and asked 
for reinforcements. They had not seen any Boers, but there were deep 
valleys along the river which might conceal a couple of thousand horse- 
men. For the Boers had left Springfield Bridge standing when it would 
have been the easiest thing in the world to blow it up, so they might be 



206 



THE STORY OF 



near. Again, the Boers had fortified the hill, and there was no reason 
why they should have abandoned it to the English without a shot being 
fired. The bridge might be a trap, the unguarded hills a bait. The 
troops passed a watchful night. In the morning the troops saw' 
what the Boers had prepared for them, for the ground fell six hundred 
feet to the bottom of the valley. Down below twisted the Tugela, 
brown and wriggling along. A tongue of land lay between the river 
and a low line of hills, and here were the Boer lines. There was no dif- 
ficulty in shelling the Boers out of their lines and passing the army on 
to the tongue of land, but to get off the tongue on to the smooth path 
that ran to Ladysmith it was necessary to force the tremendous Boer 
position above and enclosing the tongue. The possession of the heights 
where the English troops had not come gave them the bridge on the 
Tugela, but to get further they had to force the Boers who occupied the 
opposite hills in great numbers. 

The English troops saw the trap they had been led into, and they 
asked what would Sir Redvers Buller do? Every one had confidence in 
General Buller, and they would wait till they heard from him. The 
move to Potgieter's had been talked about for a long time, so the Gen- 
eral must know how to proceed now that the men who had come on the 
expedition were bottled up here. The Boers could be seen on the oppo- 
site hills ; hundreds of their horses grazed in the plains beyond. 

The newspaper man was with this expedition to Potgieter's. He 
looked at the hills and saw the Boers there. Then he turned and looked 
in the opposite direction. He saw far away what looked like a thin 
rope that was endless, winding in and out across the veldt. He looked 
through his 'field glass. The endless rope was ten or twelve miles of 
marching men and their baggage — English forces. 

The two armies were coming close together. There would be a 
collision. Here was news for the paper. But nothing happened^ that 



SOUTH AFRICA. 207 

day, except the capture of Potgieter's Ferry. This was done by volun- 
teers from the South African Light Horse. Six men jumped into the 
river and were protected by a covering party of twenty. The six men 
swam the Tugela which was at high flood and cut the ropes holding the 
ferry boat which they began to haul away. The Boers concealed in the 
opposite hills opened a sharp fire on the men, but did not hit any of them, 
and did not keep them from bringing the boat to the side occupied by 
the English. It was a dashing thing to do, and the South African Light 
Horse were proud of their men and gave them a cheer. The boat was 
gone, the Boers could do nothing. They had tried to trap the English 
troops, and this was all that had come of it so far. But more was to 
come. The next morning General Buller and his staff came. The men 
were delighted, for something would surely be done now. The news- 
paper man sharpened his pencils. 

The General went to the big stone the men called the observatory, 
and lay down on his back and looked through his telescope for nearly 
an hour. Then he went to breakfast. On Thursday, January nth, 
General Buller began his operations for facing the Tugela and going to 
the relief of Ladysmith. 

Barton's Brigade entrenched itself at Chieveley to guard the line of 
railway communication. Hilyard's Brigade marched six miles to the 
west, to Pretorius's farm, where they were joined by Hart's Brigade from 
Frere, the cavalry, the naval guns and three batteries of field artillery. 
The infantry, with two batteries, encamped, forming Clery's division, 
and the mounted forces under Dundonald went forward to take the 
bridge across the Little Tugela at Springfield, which they found unoc- 
cupied, and pushed on and seized the heights overlooking Potgieter's 
Drift on the Tugela. 

The next day Warren's division, made up of the brigades of Lyttle- 
ton and Woodgate, with three batteries, marched to Springfield and 



208 



THE STORY OF 



camped there. On the 13th the mounted troops who held the heights 
above Potgieter's Drift were strengthened by the arrival of two battal- 
ions of Lyttleton's Brigade from Springfield. General Buller made his 
headquarters in this camp. On the 14th the rest of the brigade came up, 
and the same day Coke's Battery, one howitzer, and one field battery 
arrived at Springfield. 

On the 15th Coke moved to the position before Potgieter's, and 
the naval guns were set on the heights which commanded the ford. 

All this time the Boers made no sign, but kept on fortifying their 
horse shoe shaped position, and only picket firing disturbed the silence. 
The afternoon of the 16th, as the newspaper man was about to have 
lunch, he noticed a change in the appearance of the infantry camps. 
The men there were busily bustling about, the tents began to look baggy 
and then collapsed and folded away, and where they had reared their 
white sides the camping ground became a mass of brown moving soldier 
figures. Lyttleton's Brigade had received orders to march, but in 
what direction? In another hour the question of the newspaper man 
was answered. The men were to cross the river and seize the near 
kopjes, or hills, beyond Potgieter's Drift. In quick succession came 
orders for cavalry and guns to move, the entire force excepting Beth- 
une's Mounted Infantry, to march at 5.30 in the afternoon, carrying five 
days' rations, and 150 rounds of cartridges to each man — tents, blank- 
ets, waterproof sheets, and everything elese to be left behind. 

One camp was to remain behind. This puzzled the newspaper man 
till an officer pointed out that this camp was in complete view of the 
Boers' outposts on Spion Kop, while the other camps were hidden by 
the hills. It was evident to the newspaper man that some deep scheme 
was in progress, and while the South African Light Horse were prepar- 
ing for the march he rode up to Gun Hill to watch the seizing of the 
near kopjes on the tongue of land across the river. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 209 

The sailors were hauling their two big guns to the top of the hill, 
so as to go into action to support the infantry attack. Down below the 
four battalions went through the scrub towards the ferry. As they ar- 
rived at the edge of the open ground the columns separated into skirm- 
ishers. After awhile the first line of skirmishers, the men twenty paces 
apart, reached the captured ferry boat and the approaches to the Wagon 
Drift, and scrambled down to the edge of the river. A man jumped into 
the water and swam across, carrying a rope. Two or three other men 
jumped in and followed the first one. Then a long line of men with 
arms locked went into the river and got across and formed up under the 
shelter of the farthest off bank. All this time the Boers manned their 
trenches and their guns, and made no other sign. 

While this had happened down by the river, the cavalry columns 
further back were starting. The men did not know their destination nor 
why they went, but they were excited for they knew that the time of 
action had come. Jokes were bandied ; songs sung. Some of the men 
were laughing gleefully, and the newspaper man had his tablets in his 
hand, describing the scenery around him for the benefit of his editor, 
and fully realizing that in a little while, he knew not how soon, there 
would be more to describe, unless a Mauser bullet hit him and brought 
his correspondence to an end. And everything was moving. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Lord Buller's plan to storm Spion Kop— Preparing to cross the Tugela — Pontoon 
bridges — Lord Dundonald — Capture of Boers — English kind to their prisoners — 
The dying Boer boy— -Check of Sir Redvers Buller — Boer force — English force — 
English killed and wounded — Battle of Spion Kop — Repulse of English — Com- 
ments in London, 

LONG cloud of dust sprang up towards Springfield. 
Coke's Brigade went out of its camp, near Spearman's 
Hill, and wound its way down in the direction of Pot- 
gieter's Ferry. Eight naval 12-pounders, with little 
wheels and great long, thin barrels went along, each tied 
to the end of a wagon, each wagon drawn by twenty 
oxen. The Howitzer battery followed the brigade, its short fat pieces 
like so many enormous toads. As the shadows of night fell the cavalry 
column started. On every hand the men were marching through the 
darkness. 

Having arranged his army within striking distance of the various 
passages across the Tugela, General Buller's next plan was to cross the 
river and debouch. With this end in view he appears to have had this 
idea— that Lyttelton's Brigade, the corps troops forming Cope's Bri- 
gade, the ten naval guns, the howitzer battery, a field battery and Beth- 
une's mounted infantry should make a demonstration in front of Pot- 
gieter, keep the Boers that held the horse shoe in expectation that a 
frontal attack would be made, and so mask their main position. Sir 
Charles Warren was to march by night from Springfield with the bri- 

211 





212 



THE STORY OF 



gades of Woodgate, Hart and Hildyard, six batteries of artillery, the 
Royal Dragoons, and the pontoon train. He was to proceed to a point 
about five miles west of Spearman's Hill, and in front of Trichardt's 
Drift on the Tugela. Here he was expected to meet the mounted forces 
from Spearman's Hill, and with these troops he was, on the following 
day, to throw bridges across the river, force the passage, and at leisure 
and discretion operate against the right flank of the Boer's horse shoe 
before Potgieter's, resting on Spion Kop, which was a commanding 
mountain. Ultimately he would join hands with the frontal force from 
Spearman's Hill at a designated place on the Ladysmith road. In fact, 
seven battalions, twenty-two guns, and three hundred horses under 
Lyttelton were .to mark the Potgieter position ; twelve battalions, thirty- 
six guns and sixteen hundred horses were to cross five miles to the west- 
ward, and then to make a turn and move against theBoer's right. The 
Boer army was to be pushed back on Ladysmith by a powerful force, 
the pivot of which was at Potgieter's, a point at Trichardt's Drift, and 
the cavalry under Lord Dundonald would stretch out toward Acton 
Homes, in the direction of the Ladysmith Road. 

That was the plan. The execution of it had modifications. Won- 
derful deliberation was the main feature of the whole thing. There was 
to be no haste or hurry in any wise whatsoever. If the Boers en- 
trenched and fortified, then the troops must be prepared to carry the 
positions thus prepared. But at that time, no one could tell if this won- 
derfully prepared plan would carry or not. At all events, the army was 
moving. 

After a couple of hours of easy marching the cavalry reached the 
hills opposite Trichardt's Drift, which was to be the place of rendez- 
vous. Here they halted in the black night and waited. Slowly the 
minutes passed till an hour was gone. Then Sir Charles Warren and 
his staff arrived. The order was to move the cavalry out of the way, for 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



213' 



fifteen thousand men were marching along the road and would soon be 
there. 

And then the army began to come, and it was pouring rain, and 
there were miles of men, artillery, ammunition, baggage, slaughter cat- 
tle, pontoons, Red Cross wagons, all coming out of the darkness of 
night, like mysterious ghosts which war had turned into agents of de- 
struction. The night passed in discomfort. The morning broke and 
showed the whole force on the hills that overlooked the drift, and not a 
sound hinted at the beginning of an action. 

The soldiers could not understand the delay. It was about eight 
o'clock that a patrol of the Imperial Light Horse, under Captain Bridges, 
found that only a few Boer scouts were moving within range on the op- 
posite bank, and then the passage of the river began. Some of the 
brigades moved toward the drift and began to entrench themselves in 
the fields, batteries came from the heights and went into action, two pon- 
toons were launched and a regiment began to cross in them, and the 
sappers started in to build bridges. 

Then some Boers fired, and a soldier was killed. At that the bat- 
teries opened on the woods and kopjes across the river, shelling them 
rapidly, though not a Boer was in sight, and their smokeless powder 
hiding the direction from which the shots had come. 

An hour later another brigade made its way to the water. The 
bridge was going up as if by magic, span after span of pontoons sprang 
out to support it, and in a little while it might be towed in position across 
the river. 

Some of the infantry had been ferried across and were already scour- 
ing the woods on the opposite side. About eleven o'clock the bridge 
was finished and one of the brigades moved forward. When it was time 
for the cavalry to cross there was no room for them on the pontoon 
bridge. But some distance down the stream was a deep ford called the 



214 THE STORY OF 

Wagon Drift. The mounted men began to cross this, and because of its 
unevenness and the strong current of the river many went overboard 
and had a flounder in the wet, but there was no use taking such things 
into account, even though one man was drowned, for there was pressure 
behind, and they must get across. In the afternoon the sappers built 
another bridge across the river, and the artillery and other wheeled 
transports got along. 

The rest of the day and through the night the night march across 
the river kept up, miles and miles of it. 

There was little shelter, tents having been left behind, so the cavalry 
bivoucked within the infantry picket lines. The whole army waited to 
begin action. Morning came, but no firing, except that the front force 
at Potgieter's began its ordinary bombardment. 

The artillery had not all crossed over, so there need be no hurry. 
But the infantry that day crept on about two miles nearer the Boers at 
Spion Kop. Then the mounted brigade was told to guard the infantry. 

There were a good many halts and every one took his time. At 
two o'clock the cavalry formed lines of observation along the river. 

Major Graham took a regiment and they went off like the wind 
toward the west — two hundred Boers had been reported as moving in 
that direction. After awhile came the sound of musketry a good way 
off. Far away, soon Boers could be seen behind a hill trying to get away 
from the firing. All at once one of them galloped away, the bullets of 
Graham's men kicking up the dust after him. Then straggling Boers 
could be seen crossing the plain to get back to their main position. 

Then up rode an English adjutant to the British force and told that 
Graham's men had seen Boers moving toward the distant hills in order 
to guard the way of retreat by the Acton Homer road into the Free State. 
Graham's men galloped to cut them off and reached the hills before the 
Boers by five minutes, and got off their horses and waited. The Boer 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



217 



scouts came up and then the English let drive. The Boer column 
stopped short, then broke and made for cover, though some were on the 
ground dead or wounded. Others of the Boers hid among the kopjes 
and seemed to have an idea of holding out till dark. So the Adjutant 
had come fqr reinforcements to root out the hiders. 

Lord Dundonald had come up. He said, "Go!" The mounted 
Infantry went along with a squadron of the South African Light Horse, 
then some of Thorneycroft's men, and then Dundonald himself. 

The Boers continued to hold to the kopje. Round them curved 
the British riflemen firing all the time at the kopje. Many of the Boers 
ran out and fell. But the surrender was not then. A white flag went 
slowly up over the kopje, but neither party stopped firing, so there was 
evidently a quarrel among the Boers as to stopping or continuing the 
fight. Then the English riflemen proposed to try what bayonets would 
do. A section fell down on their faces and crawled toward the kopje. 
Then a terrific fire broke out from the kopje. Then the riflemen retired, 
on their faces, then rose to their feet and ran for shelter in a donga, or 
hollow place, which is often filled with water. They had been" within 
fifty yards of the Boers when the fire became too hot for them, and they 
had lost two men. Then Dundonald appeared. A white flag was over 
the kopje. He ordered an immediate cessation of firing. In a few 
minutes three dark figures came, from among the rocks holding up their 
hands as a sign of surrender. The English took twenty-four prisoners. 
Then they searched the ground and the result was the finding ten dead 
or dying men and some loose horses. The soldiers crowded around the 
wounded, and made them pillows out of saddles and gave them water 
and food. Then Captain Gough came up. He reported a Boer, a 
mere boy, dying, and very cold, and asked who had a blanket. And 
they tried to make the boy comfortable, and he looked at them with 
sick eyes, and turned his head away. 



218 



THE STORY OF 



The Boer dead were collected and a flag of truce was sent to the 
Africanders' line to invite a burial of their dead. Under a rock, dead, 
lay the Field Cornet of Heilbron, M. de Mentz, a gray haired man. The 
Boer prisoners said de Mentz would not listen to a surrender, and when 
his leg was smashed by an English bullet he kept on loading and firing 
till he bled to death. Near him was an Africander boy shot through the 
heart. Not far away lay two dead English soldiers, their souls going 
up with those of the Africanders' to say, perhaps, that each side felt that 
their cause was just. 

The English cavalry had had a brilliant success. They had cap- 
tured twenty-four, killed ten and wounded eight. Besides, the Boers 
had retreated, taking the wounded near at hand with them. The face 
of the Boer boy who was covered with a blanket was directed toward his 
retreating people. His face was white and stern, his eyes wide open, 
as those he had been helping to defend went away with their crippled 
comrades. His hands were elapsed together over the blanket, as 
though he prayed his people might get safely away from the English that 
had for many more years than he had lived harassed and despoiled them. 
But no prayer issued from between his lips, his eyes saw nothing of the 
figures growing smaller and smaller as they faded away in the distance. 
He was dead. 

But Sir Redvers Buller met with another check in his efforts to re- 
lieve Ladysmith. His men had approached and attacked the Boer posi- 
tions beyond the Tugela, and after fighting continuously for five days, 
it was found that those positions could not be pierced from the direction 
of Trichardt's Drift any easier than at Colenso. With a great loss of 
men, estimated at over 2000, it was deemed necessary to recross the river 
and try to find some other mode of attack. 

When the Boers went into the war their force was 61,000, and it 
had dwindled considerably by this time. The English had 100,000, and 



SOUTH AFRICA, 



219 



an equal number was about to be added, and their loss had been some- 
thing over 6000. And still Ladysmith was besieged by the Boers, and 
the English could not dislodge them. 

When General Buller had arrived at Potgieter's he founci the Boers 
entrenched in a horse shoe shaped position, closing round and shutting 
the debouches from the ford where Buller secured a bridge head. 
Thereupon he masked Potgieter's with seven battalions and twenty- 
four guns and sent Warren and twelve battalions with thirty-six guns 
to turn the Boers' right which rested on the hill of Spion Kop. The 
Boers met this movement by extending their line along the heights of the 
valley of Tugela. By the 18th of January little had been done for the 
besieged town, though many brilliant successes had attended the 
English. 

Warren, on the 20th of January, began his attack. General Wood- 
gate and General Hart with their brigades pushed forward on the right, 
while the Lancashire and Irish regiments in spite of a heavy fire of artil- 
lery and rifles succeeded in effecting lodgments all along the edge of 
the plateau and captured some portions of the Boers' outer line of en- 
trenchments. On the extreme left Dundonald's cavalry demonstrated 
successfully, calling off some of the Boers, while the South African Light 
Horse, under Colonel Byney took without artillery support a high hill, 
afterward called Bastian Hill, which lay between the Boers' right and 
centre. Major Childe, whose squadron performed this exploit, was 
killed by the shell fire of the Boers. In the evening, Hildyard's Brigade 
of infantry arrived and the cavalry handed over the hill to their charge 
in the morning. The losses that day were three hundred and fifty men 
and officers, with only a few killed. The action was renewed on the 
2 1st, with Hart and Woodgate's brigades on the right making good 
and extending their lodgments. They captured all the Boer trenches 
on their first line of defence all along the edge of the plateau. 



220 THE STORY OF 

To the east of Bastion Hill there was a cut or opening between 
the right and centre of the Boers' position. The result of General Hild- 
yard's action this day on the British left was to drive a wedge of infantry 
into this cleft and thus split the Boer position in two. But the great 
strength of the Boers' second line of defence disclosed itself. This line 
ran along the top of the plateau, which rose two thousand yards in 
grassy concave slopes which were like so much glass, indeed, to the mus- 
ketry that tried to sweep it. It was tactfully arranged so as to com- 
mand every approach. 

All through January 21st the English artillery bombarded the Boer 
position without stopping, firing, as on the day before, nearly three 
thousand shells. They failed to put a stop to the Boer musketry or to 
clear the trenches. While to reach and conquer the Boer artillery which 
numbered seven or eight guns and two Maxim guns — the British had 
six field batteries and four Howitzers of tremendous power — was im- 
possible. The losses in the action of the 20th were a hundred and thirty 
men and officers killed and wounded, and no contact took place. The 
troops held the positions they had gained through the 22d and 23d, and 
the infantry had to put up with a harrassing shell fire from the Boer guns 
which, while it caused a loss of only forty men on the 22d and twenty-five 
on the 23d, yet made their position anything but comfortable. There 
was no protection against this fire, and it was plain to be seen the troops 
could not endure it for too long. Nor was any good to be got by wait- 
ing and losing men, while the Boers could go on contentedly popping 
their guns without exposing themselves in the least. If their ammuni- 
tion held out they might in this way annihilate the whole force of the 
English, and there was no reason to think their ammunition would fail. 
To the English council of war held on the 22d, three alternatives pre- 
sented themselves. First, they might attack the second Boer position 
fronting along the crest, the attack to be made by moonlight. Of 




" TO ARMS ! THE BRITISH ARK COMING ! " 



SOUTH AFRICA. 223 

course, this would mean great risk and equally great slaughter. Sec- 
ondly, the English might again withdraw beyond the Tugela, and search 
in another place for a passage. Thirdly, they might make a night attack 
on Spion Kop, and enfilade and command the Boer entrenchments. Sir 
Redvers Buller disliked theatrical effects in warfare, and while it was not 
to the taste of a brave man, and miserable as it was to call off the infantry 
a second time after they had won positions, was in favor of the second 
course — to withdraw and look for some other mode of effecting a 
passage. 

No votes were taken on the matter, and the discussion was informal, 
but the General yielded to pressure, and it was decided to attack Spion 
Kop by night, rush the Boer trenches with bayonets, take possession of 
the entrenchments while it was still dark, drag up guns and so control the 
Boer lines. The men cheered when they heard what was to be done — 
better go up to the cannon mouth fighting than stay below the en- 
trenchments and be riddled by the musketry. Terrible danger was at 
hand, letters, perhaps last letters, were to be written home with the 
chances of those they were intended for some time getting them, but the 
men cheered and were happy. 

General Woodgate had the command given to him, and Colonel 
Thorneycroft was entrusted with much of the arrangement of this night 
attack. But on the night of the 226. Thorneycroft declined to make the 
attack as the ground had not been reconnoitered and he felt that he was 
not sure of his way unless reconnoitering was had. So there was an- 
other day's shelling for the infantry on the 23d when good reconnois- 
ances were made and all was ready. 

The night was good, not too bright, and the men were in good 
condition and spirits. They were quiet, too, with the quietness of men 
with a great undertaking before them. 

At one o'clock on the morning of January 21st, General Woodgate 



224 



THE STORY OF 



started from camp with the Lancashire Fusiliers, the Royal Lancaster 
Regiment, two companies of the South Lancashires, and Thorneycroft' s 
mounte3 infantry. It was dark, and the road uneven. Guided 
by Colonel Thorneycroft, the force successfully made its way up 
the southern spur of the mountain. They surprised the Boers guarding 
the entrenchments on the summit. Those on the plain below waited and 
listened. You remember in Custer's famous charge during our own 
Civil War how those below the mountain waited and listened, how the 
clouds obscured the top of the mountain, how they heard fighting going 
on up there, and saw the powder smoke, and how they knew nothing of 
how matters were going till suddenly out from the clouds and the pow- 
der smoke the flag that is now one for north and south alike rose up and 
spread out its folds in the rift that came in the greyness. So now these 
troops down in the plain of Tugela, in far off Africa, their friends up on 
Spion Kop, the dark night blinding the one from the other, waited and 
listened for a sign. 

At three o'clock they heard a sudden loud burst of musketry. 
Then how the troops cheered, for they knew that the position had been 
carried. And carried it was, with little fighting, though ten soldiers 
were killed and wounded in the firing, and there were six Boers less 
through the instrumentality of British bayonets. Then the force set 
about fortifying itself. But the surface of the hill was badly suited for 
defence. It was impossible to dig owing to the rocks. So such cover 
as had been made by the Boers was taken into use and improved. 

Morning broke, and with the morning came the attack. The 
Boers understood perfectly the importance of the position and they now 
concentrated every man and gun at their disposal in the trial for the re- 
capture of their citadel on the mountain. They at once opened a terri- 
ble fire which was kept up and did sad work. General Woodgate was 
wounded. The command then devolved on a regimental officer, who 



SOUTH AFRICA. 225 

applied for reinforcements at half past six. Sir Redvers Buller knew the 
extremity of the situation and appointed Major Thorneycroft local 
Brigadier-General commanding on the summit of Spion Kop. The 
Imperial Light Infantry, the Middlesex Regiment and the Somersets 
were ordered to reinforce the defence, the Somersets being from Gen- 
eral Talbot Coke's Brigade. General Coke was directed to stay below 
the summit of the hill. The Boers were equal to the reinforcements and 
used not only their shells but brought a rifle attack into play, and the 
firing was continuous, till at half-past eight the English were in a crit- 
ical position. The English by that time had been driven almost com- 
pletely from the main plateau and the Boers were in possession and re- 
occupied some of their trenches. 

Then about twenty of the British in one of the trenches gave up 
hope, and threw up their hands and called aloud that they would surren- 
der. But Colonel Thorneycroft, who was a very tall man, and whose 
figure made him conspicuous from early morning till dusk in the firing 
line, rushed up and protected the men. The Boers came up to take the 
prisoners. They were only thirty yards away, when Thorneycroft cried 
out, "I command here, and I allow no surrender. Go on with your 
\ firing." 

And then a hell broke out — fusillade upon fusillade, bursting shells, 
thundering reports, white flashes of light, and shrieks of balls. Many 
Englishmen died under this terrible fire. The survivors with the rest 
of the firing line fled. They went a couple of hundred yards, when they 
were brought up by their brave commander, and then two companies of 
the Middlesex Regiment reinforcing them, they charged back and re- 
covered their lost ground, routing the Boers. They kept their regained 
position till night. 

A great stream of wounded soldiers went to the rear, the ambulance 
wagons in throngs drew up at the foot of the mountain. The killed and 



226 



THE STORY OF 



wounded strewed the ground that was red with their spilled blood. The 
soldiers were wild with thirst, they had not had time to drink, every mo- 
ment had been taken up with fighting. 

And yet the Boer defence was stubborn and magnificent, nothing 
could weaken it, and bravely they stood their ground and as bravely 
were they combatted. Give in? It was not in them to give in. They 
were there to fight, they had given their word for it, President Kruger 
expected them to fight, and fight they would, on their own ground, for 
their own possessions. President Steyn was all very well, but Kruger 
was Kruger; after all, Free States or Transvaal, Kruger was the man. 

Lyttelton sent the 3d King's Royal Rifles from Potgieter's to the 
assistance of the English. And they made a fine attack, but they did 
not help the main action, and the artillery could not find or reach the 
Boers' guns. The shelling and rifle fire never stopped, but kept up with- 
out a moment's cessation. And in spite of it all, in spite of weariness 
and thirst and wounds, the night came down in sombre shadows, and 
the British infantry still held possesion of the hill. 

But it was clear that something else must be done — unless the 
troops could have protection through the night, and the guns taken to 
the top of the hill to oppose those of the Boers, the infantry would not 
be able to hold out another day. And could the guns be brought up 
the hill? And if they were there, could the troops maintain their posi- 
tion? Some of the officers said no, that even were they to get to the 
top of the hill they would be shot out of action. Two guns much heav- 
ier than the fieldguns had arrived ; they were long range, naval twelve- 
pounders. They were in charge of a naval lieutenant who said he could 
go anywhere, at least he could try. He also said that once he got on the 
top of that hill he would knock out the Boer guns or else be knocked 
out by them, and he was quite willing to find out which way it would be. 
The two incidents are mentioned by the correspondent, now army offi- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



227 



cer, Winston Churchill, in his book, to show the contrast in spirit be- 
tween the officers who deprecated the trying for the hill top, and the 
naval lieutenant who was willing to try. 

Other informal councils of war was held, but little came from them, 
and the fifth of the series of actions called the Battle of Spion Kop came 
to an end. In London bitter comments were made on the failure, as 
they called it. In times of war every success is hailed as an evidence of 
good generalship and tact, while so-called failures are said to be the 
outcome of stupidity and faulty regulations and blindness. People en- 
gaged in a war expect impossibilities, and one defeat often depreciates 
valiant and tired officers in the minds of the general public, while # 
chance victory will make him who achieved it an idol in the popular eye. 
It was so in the case of Spion Kop. The generals engaged in it were 
brave, capable men, and they tried their best to carry through a plan 
which was one of the most difficult, and Ladysmith was not yet relieved. 

These actions for the liberation of the plucky people in the be- 
leaguered town were carefully watched in all parts of the world. There 
had rarely been seen such obduracy and stubborn tenacity as was exhib- 
ited by the Boers, who as a people, are unused to obeying orders, be- 
cause of their free life, but who now were heeding Cronje and the other 
commanders with the utmost attention to the smallest detail; though 
in all likelihood, so little used were they to giving up an undertaking 
which they had begun, they would have held together in this determin- 
ation to keep the English off if there had been no commanders at all. 
Opposed to them was an English force who had made up their minds 
that Ladysmith should be opened to those hemmed within while a vic- 
torious army was to take possession of it and end a war that had held 
out only too long and been accountable for losses which might never be 
made up. It was irritating to think how small the Boer force was, and 
that in spite of its smallness one of the greatest armies ever gathered 



228 



THE STORY OF 



together could not annihilate or dislodge it. The Boers were not a 
military people, their standing army was a farce, their parliamentary 
councils were childish in their simplicity. And yet this army of farmers 
and peasants could withstand assaults conceived by the most strategic 
minds and conducted by military officers famed for their ability. Of 
course the Boers had the advantage of position, which was a good deal, 
but this position must in time give way, though the failure to effect this 
up to now caused many a frown in proud and valiant faces. For while 
it was no shame or evidence of lack of ability for the English to be re- 
pulsed in so many attempts to reach the town they had in their eyes, 
yet the fact of the ignorant Boers holding out against intelligence and 
knowledge was not pleasant to think of. The Boers were brave, though, 
and it was something to fight a brave foe. The youngest stripling in 
their army was as firm in his resolution to hold out as was Kruger, the 
indomitable one, the crafty, strong old man who held his people by some 
magnetic influence he possessed, some hypnotism he exercised. The 
magnetic influence and hypnotism might have been that the old man 
was one of the people, a rich man, a very rich man, but a peasant for all 
that, a king and a president, but a man of the people all the same, and 
selected by that people as chief representative of a country he had helped 
by his ability to raise till it had become a nation known and respected, 
and whose trade was solicited by the strongest governments of the 
world. And the Boers believed that Ladysmith gone and the English 
in possession, their country would be theirs no longer. For they knew 
the English, they had experienced their methods before this, and while 
British rule seemed impossible to keep out, yet they would resist till the 
last, "down to the last man," for it was better to die in a righteous cause 
than to live as a slave, seeing their great country in the possession of a 
foreign power, and that power as unfriendly to their ways and methods 
as it well could be. Mafeking, too, must go away from them, and with 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



220 



that and Ladysmith relieved the South African Republic would exist no 
longer ; there would be no President Kruger, no simple form of govern- 
ment; all that would be changed. There would be English rule, the 
strange mixed up ways of politics, with its Chamberlains and Rhodeses, 
its veiled intentions, its polite phrases which had insults back of them, 
and all the other paraphernalia that went to make up the arrogant, de- 
ceitful thing known as English management. So the Boers would hold 
out, and when the end came they would at least have the satisfaction of 
feeling that they had done all they could to make the English pay dearly 
for their bargain. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Censorship of news— English newspaper opinions— Dissatisfaction of army— General 
Buller encourages the men— Church in camp — A poor sermon — Boer talk of 
Boers— Reinforcements for Buller— Move to be made— Plan of attack. 

N England the news was scarce enough ; what with censor- 
ships and interrupted telegraphic communications the 
people felt that they did not know. As in our war with 
Spain,much of our news from Manila and other points 
had to reach us by first going to China, the English peo- 
ple realized that the intelligence they received had first 
passed through other hands, and was delayed, often deceptive and false. 
Enough was known to make the delayed possession of Mafeking and 
Lady smith a subject of conjecture. Why were they not taken? Enough 
troops had been sent, the best and bravest of the land had gone to Africa, 
the officers most learned in strategy and resource were there — officers 
who had earned laurels in India, and the like — and yet nothing was done. 
Newspapers began to sneer, then grow bitter ; the war had cost much, 
both in lives and money ; over in the States a lesson had been taught to 
Spain and the war brought to a speedy termination. Spain was surely 
stronger than South Africa, and yet the Yankees had dealt roundly with 
it with a land and sea force in no way to be compared with the strength 
of the forces of Great Britain. Something was wrong, the English had 
gone pell-mell into engagements, they had relied on force of numbers 
alone, they were so used to being a terror to wrong doers that they im- 
agined their mere presence would quell disturbers of their peace; if 

233 




234 



THE STORY OF 



Joe Chamberlain wanted a war let him fight it in another way and not 
by coercing Cecil Rhodes in his nefarious plans. Cecil Rhodes had 
brought about the standing disgrace of Majuba Hill, the preposterous 
raid of Jameson also lay at his door. Old President Kruger knew what 
he was about, he was no fool, he bided his time as usual and would not 
come out second best. How he and Steyn must be laughing at the 
English, as Cecil Rhodes laughed at the Boers when he declared that 
Kimberley was as safe to live in as the most crowded street of Pall Mall. 
And where was Cecil Rhodes now? 

There were papers in the United States that spoke like this when 
we went out against the Spanish. There will be papers to speak like 
this till the last war has been fought, and then they will criticise universal 
peace and condemn as cowardly the love of man for man. 

But those who had lost most perhaps said least. In many a home 
a vacant chair told of the absence of one who would never return again, 
and doubtless those who remembered and mourned a hero did not call 
the army repulsed time and again at Ladysmith an army of bunglers and 
raw recruits, nor did they see in the commanders a parcel of old or vain 
men fighting on obsolete lines or making a picnic of the war. 

The women, many of them in new black and with eyes in which 
were shadows of new grief, did their part. If the Boer women said they 
were ready to go to war if it were necessary, the English women far 
away did what they could. What a woman can do is to make comfortable 
things for the absent soldiers, to hold bazaars in aid of some scheme for 
the amelioration of the condition of the troops, get up concerts for the 
Red Cross Society, and all that. And above all, they could pray for 
them. In times of war the churches are crowded with worshippers, the 
god of battles must be invoked in aid of the loved ones in the fray. In 
London the churches saw women crowding into them, in South Africa 
the plain farmer's wife and daughters were also kneeling. And while 



SOUTH AFRICA. 235 

they knelt and while they prayed, maybe in some far off field lay those 
they prayed for with sightless eyes turned up to the burning African 
skies. 

But the army was up and doing. After the failure of the five days 
of Spion Kop, worn out and not any too happy, the soldiers crept under 
the wagons to get out of the rain that was falling, and slept. 

Gloomily they awoke on the morning of January 25th. The evac- 
uation of Spion Kop had taken place the night before, and very likely 
all efforts would be abandoned as to turning the Boer left from the 
Tugela passage at Trichardt's Drift. When the order came that bag- 
gage was to be sent immediately and east of Venter's Spruit, the troops 
knew that their forebodings had been correct, they were to leave the 
Boers in possession. The troops were to turn out in half an hour. Of 
course this meant a general retreat. 

General Buller meant to withdraw the men as a preliminary to try- 
ing to disengage the fighting brigades, and retiring across the river. 

So it was Buller ! In the hour of misfortune the Commander-in- 
Chief had come to take the responsibility for what had happened, and to 
try to extricate the army from its position of peril, and to encourage the 
soldiers who had been defeated, though not beaten. 

The army was as dissatisfied as much as some of the onlookers at 
home. The men felt that many of their numbers had been sacrificed 
for nothing. Failure had puzzled and disappointed them, they could 
not understand. Not a thousand yards apart were some of the oppos- 
ing lines. If the English retired, the Boers would be in command of the 
place and could assail them at every point. Back of them flowed the 
Tugela, a river that was deep and rapid, and which could be forded only 
in a few places — a stream eight-five yards wide, with steep precipitous 
banks. And now everything was to be changed, everything given up, 
and a general retreat to take place ! 



236 



THE STORY OF 



General Buller arrived on the field calm and cheerful. He rode 
about with his tired staff, and gave orders right and left, and the troops 
crossed the river safely and in good order, firing going on by the Boers, 
and not an English soldier lost. The troops waited for two days while 
the immense line of wagons trailed back over the bridges. 

On the night of the 26th the retreat began. The rain was coming 
down, it was pitch dark, the ground was in ruts, and the enemy was close 
at hand. But the retreat was finely managed, and performed with ease. 
At 10 o'clock the cavalry and guns had crossed, by daylight the army 
was on the southern bank. The sappers set about taking the pontoon 
bridges apart. The Boers were firing shell, they must have been aston- 
ished at the quickness of every thing and may have smiled. But they 
fired shell all the same. 

The English force made a camp behind Spearman's Hill. Here 
they waited a week, none too happily. The General was sorry for the 
men, and he had much to think of besides. He addressed the troops. He 
told them that they would soon be in Ladysmith. The men cheered and 
brightened considerably ; they all believed in Buller. 

There had been sixteen hundred killed and wounded in the late 
actions. Twenty-four hundred men arrived to replace them. In this 
way the army was a thousand stronger than it had been when it attacked 
the Boers, while the Boers were at least five hundred weaker than they 
had been before the engagements. The troops were in good condition, 
rations were plentiful. Besides, they had been re-inforced. And now 
they were ready for the great effort when they must reach Ladysmith, 
or else be flung back beaten indeed, and with a loss of thousands of men 
— for it was now to do or die. And so they waited. 

Winston Spencer Churchill, son of Lady Randolph Churchill, was 
of this force, and did good service in the various engagements as he did 
before that as correspondent for a great English paper. Let him speak 



SOUTH AFRICA. 239 

of the Sunday after the retreat : "It is a solemn Sunday, and the camp 
with its white tents looking snug and peaceful in the sunlight, holds its 
breath that the beating of its heart may not be heard. On such a day 
as this the services of religion would appeal with a passionate force to 
thousands. I attended a church parade this morning. What a chance 
this was for a man of great soul who feared God ! On every side were 
drawn up deep masses of soldiery, rank behind rank — perhaps, in all, 
five thousand. In the hollow square stood the General, the man on 
whom everything depended. All around were men who within the 
week had been face to face with death, and were going to face him again 
in a few hours." (The army expected to go forward the next day). 
"Life seemed very precious, in spite of the sunlit landscape. What was 
it all for? What was the good of human effort? How should it befall 
a man who died in a quarrel he did not understand? All the anxious 
questionings of weak spirits. It was one of those occasions when a fine 
preacher might have given comfort and strength where both were sorely 
needed, and have printed on many minds a permanent impression. The 
bridegroom opportunity had come. But the church had her lamp 
untrimmed. A chaplain with a raucous voice discoursed on the details 
of 'The siege and surrender of Jericho.' The soldiers froze into apathy, 
and after awhile the formal perfunctory service reached its welcome 
conclusion. As I marched home an officer said to me : 'Why is it, when 
the church spends so much on missionary work among the heathens, 
she does not take the trouble to send good men to preach in time of 
war? The medical profession is represented by some of its greatest ex- 
ponents. Why are men's wounded souls left to the care of a village 
practitioner?' Nor could I answer; but I remembered the venerable 
figure and noble character of Father Brindle in the River War, and won- 
dered whether Rome was after seizing the opportunity which Canter- 
bury disdained — the opportunity of telling the glad tidings to soldiers 



240 



THE STORY OF 



about to die." But there were other ministers preaching at that same 
moment and they seized the opportunity of "telling the glad tidings to 
men about to die." 

And in London and throughout England the pulpits were elo- 
quent with enthusiasm, and extolled the brave officers and the equally 
brave "Tommy Atkins" over there in South Africa. And when this 
praise and laudation had expended itself and other feeling came, many 
an earnest man looking down at his congregation and seeing the up- 
raised eyes there, the mute questionings and askings, forgot all about 
the glories of war and turned to the God of Peace, telling nothing about 
"the siege and surrender of Jericho," with all the tiresome details of 
horns that blew and walls that fell^ and feeling his heart beating under 
his robe he spoke in pity and compassion of the soldiers, and asked that 
heaven would turn the hearts of the troops to a thought of the greatest 
of Commanders, the One who had His battles and His defeats, to gain 
at last a triumph when He stood with outspread hands that bore the 
mark of nails and said, "Come unto me!" And in the camps of the 
Boers, that same Sunday, rugged men, without too much learning by 
book, took out their Bibles — the same book of the Englishman — and 
there, too, read the story of the great Commander in whose army they 
had enlisted, a greater Ruler than Kruger, a greater General than 
Cronje, and they, too, read the story of Life. Then their hoarse voices 
took up the burden, and they sang their hymns that pleaded for mercy, 
while in the kingdom of England, the voices of those in sympathy with 
the English army sang of the same mercy. 

But they were sons of thunder while a foreign foe opposed them. 
Their strength as a fighting force had been proved before this. In the 
face of recent deeds the world knew if they were soldiers or not. They 
had little of the training such as the English enjoyed, and which training 
should have made a British regiment equal to ten times that number of 



SOUTH AFRICA. 241 

Boer regiments, if the opinion of military experts was worth anything. 
But had such been the case? The Boer was called stubborn and cun- 
ning, while his skill with the rifle was acknowledged by his foe. But 
that same foe said it was little short of miraculous that with his military 
weaknesses the Boer should have done as he had done in the war. The 
weakness of the Boer was said to be lack of discipline. Yes, that was it, 
lack of discipline. What was discipline worth, when it took ten disci- 
plined Englishmen to conquer one Boer? Then, too, the English said 
the Boer's political life and his social life were a puzzle. If the Boer in 
private life be a puzzle, what was he in war? The Boer hates war, de- 
tests it, loathes it ; he is for peace, for farming, for care of his herds and 
flocks; he has to be driven to fight. He will endure anything rather 
than fight, as the English knew very well. That is, anything up to a cer- 
tain point — the tampering with his independence. The Boer had never 
once commenced hostilities in this war, let the liars say what they would. 
There was not one of them that did not daily pray for peace, the Com- 
mandant-General, the President, every one. Every one of them was 
heartily sick of laager — fortified camp — life. He longed for the simple 
enjoyment of his home, but, also, to enjoy that peace in liberty. Every 
Boer had a sort of contempt for himself as a fightingman — fighting is 
wrong when it can be prevented. When it can't, then go ahead ; only, 
the Bible says there shall not be any useless killing, and so they had no 
organized military, as the term is used by the English, who were beauti- 
ful in their tactics and the way they held themselves, and their straight- 
ness and dressy looks. Dress? Bah, dress did not make the soldier, 
though the English were brave, too, which was a puzzle of another kind 
— how could men all spick and span, holding themselves all alike, attend- 
ing to every petty detail of organized movement, fight so well? Give 
it up. Every five years the Boers elected a Commandant-General, who 
was selected for social reasons as well as for reasons military. Each 



242 



THE STORY OF 



district has a field cornet, who was magistrate during peace, military 
man in war. But the commandants could not control their men; the 
men could do pretty much as they pleased, and thanks to nobody. For 
the Boer did not like people over him, he had as much right as anybody 
else ; let him alone and things will come out all right. Again, superior 
officers must not order them to fight ; if the Boers feel like fighting, they 
will fight ; if they don't, they won't — you must not bully. The generals 
must be careful how they order Boers around, or there won't be too 
much certainty that the generals will be obeyed. Court martial? 
Laughable idea — why the man who suggested such a thing would be 
shot, not the other man. The Boer fought to accommodate the Repub- 
lic, but you musn't tell him to fight your way ; he will fight his own way, 
or else he will go home. Can't run an army that way? Well, the army 
has been run that way, and the English haven't done much to hurt it. 
Every Boer was a soldier when it was necessary to be a soldier, and he 
did not cost this government too much ; he took his own horse and pro- 
visions for a week. Of course if he did not go to war when it was nec- 
essary to have men for fighting purposes he could be held to account. 
When Bloemfontein fell into the hands of the English were new men 
scarce? At Pretoria the field cornet requested two hundred and odd 
men to come to his office on a certain day. A number of them came, 
fifty. The field cornet said very little, he went around among the farm- 
ers, and as he was a pleasant man, other of the two hundred and odd 
came to his office, he was so pleasant about it. But the Boer did not care 
about fighting, he was not one to pick a quarrel ; his religion forbade it ; 
his Dutch blood told him it was not good to be quick in anger. In war 
there was sure to be loss of life, and to take life is sinful. If you attacked 
soldiers on the other side, that led to fighting, loss of life, sin ; so an at- 
tack by the Boers would be wrong. But cowardice? That was not 
cowardice. There may be cowards, cowards all over the world, even 



SOUTH AFRICA. 243 

among the English. And how about the fighting around Ladysmith 
and along the Tugela? Was the Boer a coward there? Why, General 
Joubert never had more than seven thousand men, and how many had 
the English? Only a few hundred men were on Spion Kop. More 
men called for would have destroyed all the English. Were there more 
than six hundred Boers to take the English trenches and get a foothold 
on the Kop? And a third of them were lost, killed, wounded, taken 
prisoners. Others had been ordered to move with these, but they re- 
fused. At Nicholson's Nek, General Botha saw that the rout of the 
English left open the way to Ladysmith, and Botha wanted to follow up 
his success. But he could not get a big force to pursue the English, 
so General Joubert ordered a retirement when he might have had a 
victory. Too bad, wasn't it? Another puzzle. But Joubert knew his 
men, and he did not dare go too far in ordering them about. All 
through the war there had been times when the British force was upset 
and retreated, and instead of following them, the Boers only retired. 
At the first battle of Colenso was General Botha in fault? By no means. 
He wanted a strong division to cross the Tugela and fall upon the rear 
of the English, but the burghers did not fell like going, so they did not 
go. Yes, the Boers were way behind in numbers as compared with 
the English ; they had not much artillery, there was no commissary de- 
partment — the English have all the Boers have not, but what then? 
General Botha tore his hair and swore like a young sinner that day he 
wanted to defend ten miles of river front and the burghers would not go. 
And yet the English Sir Charles Warren got it bad at Spion Kop. The 
few Boers who did this were tired out and could not go after the enemy. 
But General Botha had ordered a new thousand men to take the flank 
of the retiring English and posted five Krupp guns to shell the pontoons. 
This would have played the mischief with the English, but at the last 
moment General Joubert ordered that the guns should not fire and held 



244 



THE STORY OF 



back the thousand men, for General Joubert was a peaceful man, he was 
a lovely man, a patriot. The English will say his heart ought to have 
been harder. Would he have been a better Christian for that? If 
General Joubert takes care of the life of every soldier under him, he also 
thinks of the lives of his enemies. Did you ever hear how sorry he was 
to hear of the heavy losses of the British? Yes, that was General Jou- 
bert, as we Boers know him. That is like all the Boers, they don't like 
to see loss of life. But the Boers can fight, can't they? Why, never 
once, except at Paardeberg, have there been more than two thousand 
in any one engagement; more often there have been a few hundred. 
And what was that story the Boers heard about their operations being 
directed by European and American officers? Bosh! A few Euro- 
pean officers, and one American were with them, and others would come 
if wanted, but how would their directions be carried out? The Boers 
obey their own officers only when they feel like it, and how much less 
they would obey foreigners. The Boers were not soldiers, they did not 
pretend to be ; the excitement of battle did not attract them, and if they 
gain a victory there was not much to be proud about. The Boer lazy? 
Yes, that may be it — the Boer was lazy, maybe too lazy to fight, maybe 
so lazy he will sleep on sentry duty. Maybe it was the climate. And 
yet — well, look at the Boer generals if you want to see men that are not 
lazy. Paul Kruger, for instance, or General Joubert, or General Cronje. 
General Botha? Yes, he is one of the not lazy ones, but he is only 
thirty-six, a boy. No, it was not the Boer of the veldt that had done the 
best fighting in the war. It was the young men, the boys, from the 
towns where they had mixed so much with foreigners they had grown 
like them and liked excitement more and maybe their Bibles not so 
much. They were rash, and were being killed off at a great rate in con- 
sequence. After awhile all the youngsters would die of their rashness, 
and only we prudent burghers would be left. That was the lookout of 



SOUTH AFRICA. 245 

the youngsters; they refused to take advice like their elders — as it was 
the lookout of the foreigners in the towns so feverish and active that the 
youngsters caught their ideas like a disease. And the military experts 
say it is queer that the Boers did not occupy Kimberley and Mafeking 
by assault when it would have been easy for them to do so and with 
scarcely any loss. Not the fault of the generals. Lots of orders came 
from Pretoria to assault Kimberley and Mafeking, but the Boers did not 
feel like doing it. And now you know more about the Boers than you 
did when you first came, don't you? Thus speaks a Boer in Pretoria 
about the time of the retreat of the British from Spion Kop, the first 
week in February, 1900. 

The British had all crossed the river. That Sunday came when they 
attended divine service and expected that next day they would make 
another move. That next day came, and no move was made. Nor the 
next day. Ten days passed peacefully after the retreat from the posi- 
tions beyond Trichardt's Drift, and the question asked by the troops 
was, "When?" 

Then there arrived to strengthen Sir Redvers Buller's force a battery 
of Horse Artillery, two powerful seige guns, two squadrons of the 14th 
Hussars and drafts for the Infantry battalions, in all, 2,400 men. In 
this way the loss of the 1,600 men in the five days of fighting around 
Spion Kop was made good, but a thousand men strengthened the army 
till it was that much more than it had been before the repulse. The 
commissariat was attended to, and there were now plenty of meat and 
vegetables for the troops. And then came the declaration that General 
Buller had discovered the key to the enemy's position, and he promised 
that within a week Ladysmith should be relieved. At last, at last poor 
Ladysmith would be rescued. Nobody doubted it now; something 
seemed to tell them the time for doubting was past. There would be no 
repulse any more, they were going on to the rescue of the garrison. 



246 THE STORY OF 

Report said that the garrison in the beleaguered town was reduced to 
famine, and disease was there to an alarming degree. Surely the ene- 
my's line must be broken and that gallant garrison relieved. In spite of 
all that had gone before, the men had full confidence in General Buller, 
and the thought that he woulH direct the operations in person gave the 
greatest satisfaction. With Buller at the head, with knowledge gained 
by former defeat, what was to stop them? Surely not those few Boers, 
those straggled, bearded, lazy farmers, those strips of boys from the 
towns who knew nothing about military manoeuvres and were deceived 
by the feeblest demonstration^ Though it were as well to be careful, 
too, for those burghers and boys seemed remarkably able to take care of 
themselves, and in spite of lack of discipline came out ahead in many of 
the games of war that had been played. But all that was now to be 
changed and the "Tommies" would show that they could do something 
after all. On the afternoon of February 4th, the principal officers were 
informed of the outlines of the plans General Buller had decided 
should be followed. The scheme in general was to take possession of 
the hills forming the left of the Boers' position and turn the enemy over 
from the left to the right. The Boers, as usual, careless, were massed 
in their central camp behind Spion Kop. As no demonstration was to 
be made against the position to the front of Trichardt's Drift their entire 
force would be occupying the curve of the horseshoe and taking care of 
the right flank. The officers voted that the details of the plan were 
admirable. The men knew nothing of the details, but many of them 
had his own ideas, though, unlike the Boers, their own ideas counted 
for nothing with them when their officers commanded, and they only 
hoped that such command might soon be exacted from them, for they 
were now in good condition and anxious to go into the fray. They 
knew, though, that there was to be a demonstration. 

This demonstration was to be made by Wynne's (formerly Wood- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 247 

gate's) Brigade. It was to be supported by six batteries of artillery, the 
Howitzer battery, and the two naval guns. These troops, using the 
poonton bridge at Potgieter's crossed over on the 3d and 4th, and re- 
lieved Lyttelton's Brigade which had been occupying the advanced po- 
sition oh" the low Kopjes. 

At the angle of the river a mile below Potgieter's a new pontoon 
bridge had been thrown over the river, the purpose being to use it in 
support of the frontal attack. 

While Wynne's advance and the artillery advance against Brakfontein 
were going on, Clery's Division (which consisted of Hildyard's and 
Hart's Brigades), and Lyttelton's Brigade were to mass close to the 
new pontoon bridge, as though for the purpose of supporting the frontal 
movement. 

When the bombardment should have progressed for two hours, these 
three brigades were to move. There were not to go towards the Brak- 
fontein position, however, but eastward, there to throw over a pontoon 
bridge covered by a battery of field artillery taken from the demonstra- 
tion for that purpose, and secondly by the guns which had been hauled 
to the top of Swart Kop, a battery of fourteen pieces — six 12-pounder, 
long range naval guns, two 15-pounder guns, six 9-pounder mountain 
guns, and two 50-pounder seige guns. 

As soon as the new bridge was built, Lyttelton's Brigade was to cross 
and then attack the Vaal Krantz bridge, forming the left of the horse 
shoe curve around Potgieter's. 

The attack at this point was to be protected by the guns already 
spoken of on the top of Swart Kop, and six artillery batteries which were 
to withdraw from the demonstration one by one, ten minutes between 
each withdrawal, cross pontoon bridge number two and take up new 
positions opposite the Vaal Krantz ridge. 

If the Vaal Krantz was captured, the six batteries were to cross the 



248 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

number three pontoon bridge and take up positions on the hill from 
which positions they could make preparation and support the further 
advance of Clery's Division, which when it had crossed was to move 
past Vaal Krantz, round to the left, and attack the Brakfontein position 
from its left flank. Other batteries would also cross, guarding or held in 
reserve. In fact scope was given to the whole force, and to all who 
hearci it, the plan seemed good and clear. Everything was preparation 
now, orderly preparation and effective. While the Boers on the moun- 
tain seemed to be doing nothing, knowing they had done all they in- 
tended to do and ten chances to one nothing of any importance to them 
would happen from all that pother of the British. Their scouts reported 
the immense force of the English. They smiled, the English always 
required an immense force to do any thing, forever getting into one an- 
other's way. The English always had to have a lot of help, some of 
those young dandies in the army having men servants to comb their hair 
and shave them and to brush their uniforms. The Boers had no men 
servants to comb their hair and shave them for the simple reason that 
their hair was not combed and their beards never shaved. As for having 
a paid man to brush your coat, your coat did very well without brushing, 
for it was for protection, not beauty. And so these English were going 
to try it again? Well, let them come; things were as they had found 
them before and very likely as they should find them at some future 
trials. But the younger Boers, those from the towns, who combed 
their hair and admired a coat that was brushed, looked at the stolid 
burghers and wondered if now and then they might not be mistaken. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Troops moving — Boer ginning — "Long Tom" — In Ladysmith — Prices of commo- 
dities and things used for food — Hopes set on Buller — Orders to retire — Opinions 
as to defense and assault — Another trial — Another hope — Hussar Hill — Orders 
for a general advance — A gain — Americans with the troops — Monte Cristo in the 
possession of the English — Ladysmith eight miles away. 

N Sunday afternoon the infantry brigades began to move to 
their positions. The cavalry division broke camp behind 
Spearman's Hill at daybreak on the 5th. About 7 o'clock 
the bombardment of the Brakfontein position began and a 
few minutes later all the artillery guns with the exception 
of the guns on Swartkop were firing at the Boer redoubts 
and entrenchments in a cool and leisurely manner. At the same time 
Wynne's Brigade moved forward, and the cavalry massed close to the 
infantry brigades near the second pontoon bridge. The firing went on 
steadily. 

The Boers made no reply at first, but after about three hours of the 
British fire they took a hand. They opened with their Vickers-Maxim 
gun, and had the batteries on the Potgieter's plain for a target. Then 
the firing increased, until soon a duel was on hand, sharp, fierce. 

The Boer guns sent shells all along the line of advanced English 
batteries. The shells burst between the guns and threw up great foun- 
tains of dust and smoke. The gunners could not be seen for the grimy 
clouds that sprang from the earth and covered them. Shrapnel shells 
also took part in the matter and the dusty plain was torn and ripped by 
their missiles. 

249 




250 



THE STORY OF 



The Englishmen kept up their work bravely. They apparently 
made little impression on the Boer guns, but they did not suffer very 
badly, the loss in officers and men being small. Every ten minutes the 
batteries withdrew and filed in fine order across the second pontoon 
bridge. Wynne's brigade had advanced and were within twelve hun- 
dred yards of the Brakfontein position. This drew on them the Boer 
fire. The three brigades under Clery were to the right. The cavalry 
were in the hollows down at the foot of Swartkop. The third pontoon 
bridge was finished, the engineers while at their work being the mark of 
Boer skirmishers, while a Maxim gun also took them into consideration. 

And now opposite Vaal Krantz the six English batteries and the 
howitzers and seventy guns began shelling. Boer guns opened from 
Doomkloop, on the right, and took an active part. There came thun- 
dering crashes of cannonading and the garrison in Ladysmith wondered 
what it all meant, and if anything unusual were happening. 

At noon a part of Lyttelton's brigade crossed the third pontoon 
bridge to the opposite bank of Vaal Krantz, supported by the Royal 
Rifles, while two other battalions of the brigade strengthened the at- 
tack. The troops kept moving across the plain, paying no attention to 
the Boer fire from Doomkloof, which stormed them and kept up a con- 
tinual charge. Not more than an hour more, and the leading com- 
panies reached the foot of the ridge and riflemen could be seen climbing 
up. The advance continued steadily, slowly, determinedly. One of 
the Boer Vickers-Maxim guns retired and got off, though the English 
fired a tremendous volley after it. Slowly, steadily, foot by foot, the 
English gained an advantage amid the blinding dust and the deafening 
roar and rattle. At last the Durham Light Infantry sprang up the hill 
and carried it at the point of the bayonet. They lost seven officers and 
sixty or seventy men, and captured five Boers, ten horses and some 
wounded men. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



251 



Most of the Boer force had retired, the terrible, concentrated fire of 
tlie English being too much for them. The day went on with firing 
and carnage, the English never giving out and taking the Boer fire 
beautifully. Little by little they got a footing, and by nightfall the 
whole of Vaal Krantz was in their possession and they had entrenched 
themselves there. There was now a breathing space, and they looked 
about them and reckoned up the results of the day. 

The losses had not been great, maybe not more than a hundred and 
fifty men. So a part of General Buller's plan had been carried out in a 
good manner. But Clery's Division must get across the third, bridge 
and plant batteries on the hill and so set free the cavalry brigade in the 
plain beyond, and begin the principal attack on Brakfontein. All this 
was yet to be accomplished in further carrying out of the plan. 

But the entrenched ones might rest awhile. Had they heard how 
things were going on in Ladysmith? Why in there the Boer gun on 
Bulwana, "Long Tom," was watched, for it was the greatest terror to 
the people. They could see the smoke of it half a minute before the 
shell struck the town. Sentinels were out looking for the smoke and 
gave the alarm when they saw it. At one of the hotels, Indian coolies 
beat iron bars together, and the regiments had their buglers to give the 
warning when the white smoke told that "Long Tom" would land a shell 
and the people would better get under cover. But "Long Tom" was 
not the only alarming thing in the prison of a town over which the shells 
burst all the time for so many weary weeks. There was little food, the 
water was bad, and disease was everywhere. The whole town was on 
fixed rations, which the people went every day to draw at places ap- 
pointed for the purpose. It is said that what was most missed was milk, 
then tea, for women and children. The men's greatest loss was tobacco. 
A can of condensed milk was worth two dollars and fifty cents ; a pound 
of tobacco, fifteen dollars. Corn was seventy-five cents the ear, a dozen 



252 THE STORY OF 

matches brought the same price. In course of time horses were killed, 
over two thousand of them, and used instead of beef. Starch, blue with 
indigo, intended in the first place for laundry purposes, was eagerly 
taken and made into bread, as was canary seed which was beaten into a 
powder and kneeded into cakes. The people waited and waited for the 
relief that did not come. Early in December they were sure that relief 
was at hand, for Buller was trying to get to them, and they believed so 
much in Buller. They must find out all they could, so they would en- 
gage a Kaffir boy for a hundred dollars to carry messages to Chievely, 
until the heliograph after various encounters with Boer flash lights at 
last got into working order and signals and messages sent up to the 
clouds told about the army and what progress it was making, and also 
told its defeats. But Buller's men were fighting for them, the troops 
had forsaken their tents and were lying on the ground, Buller along with 
them, faring no better than the men. And defeat came of it. And de- 
feat after defeat. But now, here in February, Buller was again trying to 
reach them. And the poor garrison ! Worn to skeletons, skins like 
brown paper, their hands weak and nerveless, and still the men held out. 
But get under cover, the booming to-day is terrible, "Long Tom" is 
doing his best, and Buller is coming — don't the heliograph tell you so? 

By the night of February 5th, Lyttelton's Brigade occupied Vaal 
Krantz. During the night the men made shelters of stone. Then it 
was said that field guns could not occupy the ridge, it was too steep and 
rocky. Then how about the Boers having guns on top of the highest 
hills? And so the hill which had been so difficult to take was of no use, 
especially as the Boers' long range rifle work would do much damage. 
But over there was another position of strength, though if it were ever 
taken the infantry must do it without artillery support. This was im- 
possible, too dangerous to attempt. 

And now was there to be another defeat, after all? The men frowned 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



253 



and ground their teeth together and wondered if they were to be turned 
back again by the Boers, who were bombarding the captured ridge for 
all they were worth. 

And all the next day this bombardment kept up, accompanied by an 
irritating long range rifle fire. Then a big gun firing a hundred-pound 
six-inch shell went into operation from the top of Doomkloof, and its 
awful projectiles reached Vaal Krantz and the bivouacs, one of them 
exploding within a few yards of General Buller. Again, two of the 
Boers' Vickers-Maxims took up the firing, while other guns burst shrap- 
nel. And all aimed against the solitary brigade which held Vaal Krantz. 

But the English answered back. Seventy-two guns, big and little, 
though they stopped none of the work of the Boers. 

The Brigade on the hill did not move, though, in spite of severe 
losses ; they had taken the hill ; it was theirs, and they meant to stay. 

But about 4 o'clock in the afternoon there was a sudden attack by 
the Boers who crept up to within short range and then began firing, sup- 
ported by their Vickers-Maxims. Driven back with loss, the pickets at 
the western end of the hill ran, and it appeared for awhile as though the 
Boers would retake the hill. Then General Lyttelton ordered a half 
batallion of the Durham Light Infantry and the King's Royal Rifles to 
clear the hill. Colonel Fitzgerald was to lead. These brave men rose 
from their shelters and gave three loud cheers, their faces glistening with 
excitement. They charged with a rush and swept back the Boers at the 
point of the bayonet, and Colonel Fitzgerald was badly wounded. So 
the Boers were routed from that point, they and their short range rifle 
shots which were so splendidly effective. But all the rifle shots in the 
world are nothing if the bayonets can get in their plunges. 

While these operations were going on, a new pontoon bridge was 
springing across the Tugela at a bend directly under the Vaal Krantz 
ridge. By five o'clock it was finished, and ready for next day's proceed- 



254 



THE STORY OF 



ings, for nothing else was done that evening. The EnglisH losses in 
the two days' operations were two hundred and twenty-five officers 
and men. 

General Hildyard spent the night in improving the defences of the 
hill and built new traverses and head cover. Though the Boers were 
not going to give the English too much time for rest. At midnight they 
made a fresh attempt to regain their lost position. The English camp 
was sleeping. A sudden roar of musketry waked it. The men sprang 
to their feet and made for the defensive. The Boers retired, repulsed. 
All night long from that time on there was desultory firing which told 
the English its story. At day break real shelling began as though that 
which had gone before were mere child's play. Several new guns were 
added to those already in play and the Bombardment was heavy and fast. 
The English had made excellent covers, however, and were well pro- 
tected, so that the losses that day were not more than forty. The cav- 
alry and transport were also shelled. They were sheltered in the hol- 
lows beneath Swart Kop, and when the shelling began they were moved 
back to a safer position. 

In the evening General Buller who, during these two days had been 
waiting under a tree in an exposed position, and who had experienced 
all the discomforts of his troops, held a consultation with his generals. 
A great many plans were suggested as to what move to make next, but 
the common opinion was that it was not possible to make a further ad- 
vance along this line. At eleven o'clock that night Hildyard's Brigade 
was withdrawn from Vaal Krantz, carrying with them the wounded, who 
had had to wait till dark to be taken in charge of by their friends, and 
orders came for. the general retirement of the army to Springfield and 
Shearman's. 

In LadysmitH the people knew of these orders, the heliograph told 
it to them, and it seemed to them that relief would never come. How 



SOUTH AFRICA. 257 

long could they hold out now? Where was food to come from, and 
where the money to buy it if it came? And there were the sick, diseased 
by privation and want and keeping so long in the holes under ground 
where they had to retreat to try and protect themselves from the Boer 
shells flying over the city. Was it indeed a "doomed city" as so many 
said? Were they to experience horrors such as they had read about, 
starvation, death from foul diseases, extermination from the terrible 
bursting shells that never stopped night nor day? 

And what were the feelings of disappointment experienced by the 
English soldiery at not having been permitted to fight the matter out? 
But the orders for retreat had come, the venture had fizzled out into 
another failure. And why? There was an explanation. It was this: 

"The Boer covering army numbered at least 12,000 men with a 
dozen guns. They held along the line of the Tugela what is practically 
a position of vast strength. Their superior mobility, and the fact that 
they occupied the chord, while the English would have had to move 
along the arc of the circle, enabled them to forefront the English with 
nearly their whole force whenever an attack was aimed. Therefore 
there was no way of avoiding a direct assault. According to contin- 
ental experience the attacking force should outnumber the defence by 
three to one. Therefore Sir Redvers Buller should have had 36,000 
men. Instead he had only 22,000. Moreover, behind the first row of 
positions, which practically ran along the edge of an unbroken line of 
steep flat-topped hills, there was a second row standing back from the 
edge at no great distance. Any attack on this second row the artillery 
could not support, because from the plain below they were too far off 
to find the Boer guns, and from the edge they were too close to the ene- 
my's riflemen. The ground was too broken, in the opinion of many 
generals, for night operations. Therefore, the attacking infantry of 
insufficient strength would have had to face unaided the fire of cool en- 



258 THE STORY OF 

trenched riflemen, armed with magazine weapons and using smokeless 
powder. Nevertheless, so excellent was the quality of the infantry that 
if the whole force had been launched in attack it is not impossible that 
they would have carried everything before them. But after this first 
victory it was necessary to push on and attack the Boers investing 
Ladysmith." Thus writes an officer of the force in correspondence 
with a London journal. An American writer from the seat of war says 
that to the man who read of Buller's slow advance the delay seemed in- 
comprehensible. But the men who saw the incomprehensible in the 
long delay in reaching Ladysmith should have seen the country through 
which the General had to march, the vast country for attack, the best for 
defence in all South Africa. The English correspondent was conserva- 
tive in saying that it requires three men to one in attacking and defend- 
ing. Block, the authority on modern war, says that with the new weap- 
ons a force that is entrenched and on the defensive will need but one man 
for eight when hostilities come. 'In that case, General Buller should 
have had close on to two hundred thousand men. You know how many 
he had. 

The soldiers, though, did not take all this into consideration. Nor 
did they consider the fact that the General was loath to waste human 
life. They only saw that he was slow to follow up an advantage, and 
with all his ability he hesitated to move quickly. No wonder dissatisfac- 
tion broke out in camp ; the men felt certain that everything would have 
gone well if the officers had let them alone. In Ladysmith, hopes on 
Buller were also saddened ; those who are suffering rarely lay the pros 
and cons of a case together. They knew that a big force had started 
out to release them, a force far outnumbering the Boers, and they were 
not released, and if the Boers get into the town what awfulnesses might 
not be expected ! On the other hand, the Boers in their regained en- 
trenchments smiled grimly as they smoked their pipes. The English had 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



259 



got it again ; there was no use for the English to think they could con- 
quer the Boers. That was it, the young fellows from the towns said ; 
there was no use for the English to think they could conquer the Boers, 
and if only the old burghers had some push in them, the matter would 
be settled in no time and Ladysmith be taken. The old burghers 
smoked and smiled ; this young fry thought the Africanders had it all 
their own way. They hadn't, though, and in time very likely the Eng- 
lish would win, for it had been reported that the English could 
command 300,000 men if it were necessary, and men were pouring 
in from England every day, and with such a force the Boers had no 
chance at all. However, the Boers should do what they could, harrass 
the enemy, keep them from relieving Ladysmith till the garrison there 
were worn out and the people starved. Even mule flesh had its limits, 
and if there are no mules, where will the mule flesh come from? What 
was the good of the Boers, they could eat anything and not complain ; 
they did not need the dainties required by the English. "Bully" beef 
was good enough for them ; an ox killed a half hour ago was good eat- 
ing, and there was no use to be squeamish. But there were the farms 
going to ruin, crops gone, herds running wild. Surely it were better to 
have the war over as soon as possible in order to avert ruin. But haste 
was nonsense ; you can wear an enemy out, if his superior'numbers make 
it impossible to conquer him in righting, and the English were wearing 
out and would eventually come to terms. Those terms? President 
Kruger would take care of that part of *he bargain, and President 
Kruger knew how to drive a good bargain. Of course the main terms 
of the bargain would be freedom from British rule, when the burghers 
might go on- leisurely to their neglected farms and spend the rest of 
their days in telling tales of adventures concerning the war to their chil- 
dren and their children's children, while the whipper snappers would go 
back to their towns and say they had 3one it all, and copy English coats 



260 



THE STORY OF 



and when they could afford it would hire men to comb their hair and 
shave their chins. 

It was clearly understood when Sir Redvers Buller broke off the 
combat at Vaal Krantz and for the third time ordered his still unbeaten 
troops to retreat that without delay there would be another attempt to 
penetrate the Boer lines. The army moved from Shearman's and 
Springfield to Chievely. General Lyttelton succeeded General Clery in 
command of Clery's Division and Brigade, and marched by way of Pre- 
torius's Farm, Sir Charles Warren covering the withdrawal of the trans- 
port and supplies and following on the ioth and nth. The regular 
cavalry brigade with two battalions to guard the bridge at Springfield, 
for the Boers had crossed the Tugela with considerable strength and 
were reported as being active in the neighborhood. The left flank of 
the marching infantry was covered by Dundonald's Brigade of Light 
Horse. There was no interruption from the Boers. Orders were 
issued to reconnoitre Hussar's Hill on the 12th. It was a wooded hill 
four miles from Chievely, on the east, and the direction of the next attack 
became known. 

We are familiar with the Colenso position and realize its great 
strength. The left of this position rests on the hill of Hlangwani, which 
was on the British side of the Tugela. If this hill could be captured, 
and secured from cross fire, why all the trenches of Fort Wylie and along 
the river bank would be secure, and the Colenso position would be un- 
tenable, so in this way Hlangwani was the key of the Colenso position. 
The Boers, however, were guarding this key and had constructed a line 
of defence. The long delays of the British had given the Boers time 
to make fortifications, while their trenches were so well constructed that 
they were more like forts than field works, and had overhead covers as 
a protection against shells, and numbers of loopholes. In front 
stretched a bare slope, on each side of which rose high steep hills from 



SOUTH AFRICA. 263 

which the guns could make a cross fire. But the English were now 
hoping to make a supreme effort to relieve Ladysmith. And the same 
army must defend South Natal. Men would be lost in the new effort 
and Buller hated to lose men. But victory could not be won without 
the loss of men. Therefore men must be lost. If he won in this case 
he would have done a wonderful feat of arms. If he were beaten he 
would deserve respect and sympathy, for he would have tried to the 
best of his ability. 

Hussar Hill was so called because six weeks before a small party of 
Hussars had been surprised there and lost two men. It was the high 
ground opposite Hlangwani and the mountain ridges called Monte 
Cristo and Cingolo. 

At eight o'clock on the morning of the 12th, Dundonald started 
with the Light Horse, the Composite Regiment, Thorneycroft's 
Mounted Infantry, Colt's Battery, a battalion of infantry and a battery 
of field artillery. Hussar Hill was soon in possession of the English, a 
Boer patrol which had been watching it being driven back. A picket 
line was soon surrounding the captured ground and a musketry fire 
began with the Boers that lay concealed in the surrounding dongas. 

At noon General Buller arrived and made a reconnoissance of the 
ground by means of his telescope. The next hour the troops were or- 
dered to withdraw and the bringing in of the advanced pickets was 
accomplished under a Boer fire, and without the loss of a man. 

.After they left Hussar Hill on the way back to Chieveley there was a 
sudden fire from the Boers. The English went along in order for a few 
yards, and then broke into a canter. But the English reached the ridge 
two thousand yards away, and then they let drive. The Light Horse 
lined the ridge and opened fire with their rifles. Thorneycroft's men 
opened on the Boers with two Maxims. Dundonald sent word for the 
battery to fire over the heads of the still oncoming English force. Then 



264 THE STORY OF 

Gough's Regiment and the Royal Welsti Fusiliers who had nearly 
reached cover, turned round without any orders and hurried toward 
the firing. Four hundred men on each side were firing as fast as modern 
rifles will fire. The Boers on Hussar Hill had a couple of sheds and 
some trees there, and they were invisible, and their use of smokeless 
powder kept their position hidden. The English were also hidden. 
But the English did not come out for this sort of warfare, and a stop was 
put to it. They lost several men. For three months General Buller 
had been trying to pierce the Boer lines and the barrier of mountain and 
river which separated Ladysmith from friends and the much needed 
food suplies. During the 15th and 16th there was an intermittent artil- 
lery duel between the Briton and the Boer with small loss on either side. 

To the English, determined to go ahead .this time or die, the ques- 
tion of a water supply was a difficulty to overcome, for the Blue Krantz 
river was several miles from Hussar Hill and the hill itself was dry and 
barren. This question was satisfactorily answered by bringing into 
requisition a system of iron tanks which were mounted on ox wagons, 
and thus a sufficient, if small, supply of water was maintained. Also, 
the heavy artillery was brought into action and entrenched. The ene- 
my's position was a formidable one to attack and the great care with 
which the Boers had fortified it gave cause for serious reflection. 

On the afternoon of the 16th, General Buller made up his mind to 
make a plunge. Orders were given at dawn. Two hours before dawn 
the army was on the move. By daylight all were on the way. And 
then was heard the boqm of the first guru 

The English cavalry marched ten miles eastward through a most 
difficult country made up of rocks, high tough grass and thickets. The 
men had to go single file, hearing the sound of guns, but far off. Then 
they began to turn towards the sounds. The ground, if possible, was 
worse than ever. They dismounted and led v their horses that were 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



265 



scrambling over boulders and among trees. No Boers put in an appear- 
ance, apparently they thought no force would try to get along that road. 
At last the troops reached the foot of the hill. They waited half an 
hour, and nothing could be seen. Then they went on, up the side of 
a precipice, through a thick confusing jungle. It was a long time be- 
fore they reached the top of the ridge and reached an opening,' stony 
and with patches of trees on it. Two squadrons formed on top to cover 
the others that were coming on. The troopers of the other seven squad- 
rons worked their way up. It would take two hours before everybody 
was on top. 

All at once there came a rifle shot. Then another ; and then a rain 
of bullets. The Boers had seen the troops. A retreat down the preci- 
pice was impossible if there had been a thousand Boers firing. There 
were only about a hundred and the troops got into a skirmish with the 
enemy and they fell back, and all the English got on top of the hill. 

The Imperial Light Horse squadron and the Natal Carabineers 
came slowly along the ridge and cleared it of the Boers, while Hild- 
yard's right battalion moved to the top and came to the support of the 
dismounted cavalry. The rest of the cavalry descended into the plain 
on the other side of the ridge, outflanking the Boers who defended it, 
and cutting off their retreat, so that the Boers who were weak in num- 
bers were hunted off entirely, and Cingolo belonged to the English. 

A neck of ground joins Cingolo and Monte Cristo. The Boer lines 
turned off from Cingolo were out along the spurs of Monte Cristo, and 
the British had placed themselves diagonally across the left of the Boer 
position. The cavalry threw out a line of outposts and prepared to 
rest for the night, a fter engaging in several long range rifle duels with a 
few of their enemy, while the infantry sprang out a line standing across 
the valley to Hussar Hill. Many Americans were with the South Afri- 
can Light Horse, and they and the Colonial troops took a hand in the 



266 



THE STORY OF 



duels. The English had gained a good deal by nightfall, and they were 
not going back. This was the great chance, their blood was at fever 
pitch, and they meant to go on. The night was restless and unquiet ; 
the morning was eagerly looked for. 

Scarcely waiting for the dawn of light, the artillery on both sides 
began, and shells began to burst. The Boers chiefly aimed at the Eng- 
lish on top of Cingolo, but the rocks there made good cover and hin- 
dered any great loss of men, though several men were wounded. Then 
Hildyard's Brigade came up against the peak of the Monte Cristo ridge, 
and the musketry grew into a roar. More than a hundred English fell, 
but that did not hinder the advance of their comrades ; the advance was 
not crecked for an instant, and in the space of a couple of hours there 
came the glitter and flash of the bayonets of the infantrymen on top of 
the hill. 

The Boers in a hastily scooped out-trench began to fall back. In 
another hour the Boers became degenerated. It has been said that a 
Boer obeys only when he wants to obey, comes when he wants to come, 
goes when he is so inclined. When they saw the immense force of the 
enveloping army, these Boers chose to go, and they turned and made 
as good an exit as it' was possible to make. 

At noon the summit of the ridge of Monte Cristo belonged to the 
English. The spurs of the mountain were now attacked, and the Boers 
evacuated in haste. The cavalry under Dundonald galloped up and 
seized the eastern spur and fired into the line of retreat. The Boers' 
fire back was faint, and the English were victors, with only two men 
wounded. 

General Buller, judging that the entrenchments on the western spur 
on the Colenso side were empty of Boers, ordered a general advance 
against it. In a disorderly mass the Boers fled across the river, and the 
English, besides a few prisoners, captured several cart loads of ammuni- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



267 



tion and stores, five camps with their outfits ; and above all they had the 
Monte Cristo ridge that stretched to within an easy spring of Bulwana 
Hill. The soldiers were wild with victory. They could have slept in 
the Boer camps that night, only that those camps were not very inviting, 
being unclean to a degree, the Boer soldier being anything but a neat 
fellow, and not caring much for ordinary sanitary arrangements. In- 
stead, the Englishmen preferred to bivouac on the captured ridge, from 
which they could look down into Ladysmith, the persecuted. Only 
eight miles away it stood, the poor little town of suffering, the brave 
little town of heroes — a small area of tin-roofed houses, gum trees on 
its sidewalks here and there, its yellow dust rising in the gusts of wind 
that made haloes of it. There could be no mistake this time, the 
"doomed city" was to be saved. But not just yet. 

The capture of Monte Carlo, however, had opened a practicable 
road to the town, and over that road the English troops must march 
to save the honor of their kingdom. 

It was only eight miles away, that little town, but the eight miles 
that separated it from its friends bristled with difficulties. Heavy op- 
position was yet to be met, and that opposition must be conquered. Im- 
possible! Impossible was an ugly word and not lightly to be used. 
The Englishmen, grimy with dirt, wearied with much fighting, ragged 
and worn, who looked down upon the town from the summit of Monte 
Cristo, felt that the word "impossible" should be wiped forever from the 
vocabulary of a soldier. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Ladysmith eight miles away — Difficulties in reaching the town — Newspaper criticisms 
— Buller's plan and works — Taking of Colenso — Boers in retreat — Characteris- 
tics of Buller— "On to Ladysmith"— Meeting the Boers— Splendid fighting of 
English and Boers— Losses of English— Suffering of English wounded— Buller's 
change of plan — Soldiers disappointed— Soldiers encouraged — The last attempt 
to save Ladysmith. 

AD YSMITIH ! It was a word of magic ; the world knew 
it and wondered what would come of all the efforts to- 
wards relief. The army under General Buller was only 
eight miles from it, the troops on Monte Carlo looking 
down into the town, where there had been suffering for 
many weary days and weeks and even months. The papers spoke of the 
splendid efforts of Lord Roberts towards the relief of Kimberley ; they 
reported General Cronje as captured by the force of Lord Roberts. 
Besides, the Maine, the hospital sliip fitted out by English women, had 
arrived in South African waters and was giving needful assistance to 
sick and wounded. From all over the African continent came reports 
more or less truthful detailing happenings in connection with the war 
— how Mafeking was still holding out, how the savage tribes were ris- 
ing, how Kruger's sons and grandsons were in the war and more than 
one of them wounded unto death. But interest was centered on Lady- 
smith, by one consent that was the point towards which all eyes were di- 
rected. The garrison there had so long kept the Boers away, the 
Boers had so long persisted in shelling the place insisting upon capitu- 
lation, and the English forces back of the Boers had so often been re- 

269 




270 



THE STORY OF 



pulsed in their efforts to relieve the worn out garrison. And now that 
the English were only eight miles away, would the relief come soon? 
No one could tell ; those eight miles must be fought first ; the troops had 
been too often defeated to surmise how the matter would go. Men in 
London clubs betted on Buller, newspapers twitted Buller for so often 
going to the Tugela river and failing to get across that they called him 
'The Ferryman." And now he had crossed the river, would he turn 
back and recross it again, as he had done before? These wise news- 
papers, these critics did not know the difficulties the General had en- 
countered, nor the miserable roads that beset him on every side, the 
hidden lines of defence of the Boers making it a physical impossibility 
for the troops to face a fire coming from ambushed enemies above their 
heads. The critics only knew that Buller had more men than Joubert, 
and that numbers ought to count. Joubert was a great general and 
outflanked Buller's effort every time. 

And Roberts, what was Roberts doing? Wasn't there a lot of 
bluster and bluff in this war? Every country had generals except this 
England — look at the American-Spanish war, the Japan-China war. 
But then the English are so sure of themselves. 

So the critics and certain of the newspapers went on, and eight 
miles away from Ladysmith General Buller was busy with his plans. 
Monte Carlo had given him Hlangwani, which made the holding of the 
western section of Colenso in the hands of the Boers impossible, and 
the eastern section was already in the hands of the English. Thus the 
Boers evacuated the western section speedily. On the day after the 
capture of the Monte Cristo ridge, the 19th of February, General Buller 
strengthened his position on Green Hill, ordered Barton's Brigade to 
occupy Hlangwani, built roads or improved those already in use, com- 
pleted communications between Husser Hill and the Gomba Valley and 
across, and brought up his heavy guns. The Boers on the other side of 



SOUTH AFRICA. 273 

the river understood what was going on and prepared to resist. They 
opened their artillery, their Vickers-Maxim guns bellowing and roar- 
ing, and their skirmishers began a sharp fusillade. The English suffered 
some loss, but returned the fire exceedingly well. For the next day 
the south side of the Tugela was clear of the Boers who had retired 
across the bridge they had built. 

The English forthwith established a heavy battery on the spur of 
the Hlangwani to drive the Boers out of Colenso, and set it in operation 
effectively. In the afternoon Hart's Brigade arrived from Chieveley, 
and Major Stuart Wortley commanding the leading battalion occupied 
Colenso without any resistance, the Boer troops having retired, and the 
farmers in the village looking on and saying nothing, perhaps wishing 
that Ladysmith were at Jericho if it took all this nonsense to settle mat- 
ters and which nonsense robbed honest farmers of their eggs and poul- 
try, first by the one side, then by the other, and made the women refuse 
to attend to the cows if all the milk was to be wasted on soldiers. 

The question now put to the English was, where should the river 
be crossed? General Buller had the entire Hlangwani plateau which 
filled up the angle opposite Pieters, made by the Tugela after it recedes 
from Colenso. By way of this Hlangwani plateau the General could 
get across the river where it ran north and south or where it ran east 
and west, he might decide on any point of the compass and be sure he 
could cross in that direction from his own holding. He decided to cross 
opposite Colenso village. To do this, though, he had to resign his hold 
on the ridge of Monte Cristo and give up all the advantages he had 
gained by its possession. And then he had to go down to the low 
ground where his forces would be cramped and huddled between the 
river'on one hand and the high hills on the other. 

Sir Charles Warren's plan, too, was worthy of attention — or, rather, 
the plan advocated by that General. It was urged that the crossing was 



274 THE STORY OF 

perfectly safe, it was commanded by the English guns on all sides, and 
all the Boers could do in the defensive was to put their artillery into 
execution. Besides, in adopting this plan the army could reach the 
railroad tracks and make its "advance along the railroad" in cars. Of 
course, this was imaginative, for there were no cars and the track had 
been broken by the destruction of the Tugela bridge. What was the 
most important of all was the report that the Boers were in full retreat ; 
the evidence and intelligence received all pointed to that retreat — the 
Boers had gone off in all directions, dragging their heavy wagons and 
trucks north and south, and the camp between Monte Carlo and Lady- 
smith was breaking up. Everybody said this must be caused by the 
advance of Lord Roberts, that the Boers found themselves too weak to 
hold on any longer, and had raised a siege. Three cheers for Roberts, 
"Old Bobs !" He was one of 'em, was "Bobs," and he was not too old, 
in spite of his sixty odd years, to make Kimberley safe and do a few 
other odd jobs on the way. 

But the Boers had not raised the seige. Their strength had been 
reduced until they numbered not more than a few thousand men, and 
these had been sent into the Free State for defence against the English 
there. They thought themselves quite strong enough to maintain a 
siege until they lost the Monte Carlo ridge, and then they saw that the 
situation had become completely changed. The English had found 
the advantage, the English appreciated to its full extent the value of the 
long high wedge of ground cutting across the left and reaching almost 
to Bulwana mountain. If the Boers advanced on the right of their ene- 
my, by the line of the ridge, the English would turn their Pieters' posi- 
tion, the same way they had turned the Colenso entrenchments. So it 
was not the advance of Lord Roberts that caused them to retire, nor was 
it the result of the English victory over Monte Cristo. The English 
were yet to learn this after the loss of much blood. Believing that the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



275 



enemy were retreating, the General decided to cross the river, easterly, 
by a pontoon bridge and follow the line of the railway. 

Therefore, on the 21st he moved his army across the plateau of the 
Hlangwani, threw out a bridge, and during the afternoon two of his 
leading brigades passed over. 

The Boers had been watching ; when they perceived this line of ad- 
vance they were cheered up. So they turned back, hurrying, on the 
part of the younger ones, leisurely, as to the older who had much belief 
in calmness. They numbered about nine thousand. They manned 
the trenches of the Pieters position. 

Thus when Wynne's Lancashire Brigade, which was the first to 
cross, got to shore, they found the Boers on the ground. There was a 
sharp fight, in which the English casualty list was swelled by about a 
hundred and fifty, including the general of thei^rigade. Night fell while 
the fighting was under way, and the musketry kept up banging the 
whole night long. 

The first cavalry had been brought from Springfield on the 20th, as 
on the 22d both irregular and regular cavalry intended to cross the 
river. So they now marched to the river. They heard the cracking 
going on over there and their eyes brightened, but a staff officer gal- 
loped up with orders for the men to camp near Hlangwani Hill, as 
crossing was not to be effected that day. There were more Boers than 
had been expected, but General Buller thinking of it determined to per- 
severe. General Buller had a good share of English obstinacy in his 
composition, and he took advice only when it appealed to his reasoning 
powers. He had a horror of bloodshed, yet unless he was convinced 
that a thing was impracticable, he persevered. He cared very little for 
the opinion of the world at large. While a retreat might be humiliating, 
that retreat should be made when the time for making it arrived. Only, 
in spite of retreats he would get to Ladysmith. 



276 THE STORY OF 

General Buller was not convinced that more than the rear guard 
of the Boers was in front of him, not believing that nine thousand were 
there, moved all the infantry with the exception of Barton's Brigade, 
and most of the artillery, and crossed the river. In the afternoon he 
sent two battalions from Norcott's Brigade and the Lancashire Brigade 
(Lord Kitchener had been appointed to this vacant command) to fight 
against the low kopjes. There was loss in men, but before night a 
good deal of this ground was in the possession of the English. 

Then the Boers made a counter attack. 

Then came a tremendous firing, and this lasted for hours. The 
Howitzer Battery sent out his destructive lyddite shells, the cannon 
roared, the shells burst and filled the night with deadly light, and this 
was the English against the Boer positions. The Boers were equally 
on the alert, and added their bursting shells to the confusion. All night 
long this kept up, and there was still steady firing in the early morning 
of the 23d. The English not engaged in the fight on the other side of 
the river went about for news. It all seemed favorable to the English. 
Then came the order, "Horse, foot and artillery, push on for Ladysmith 
to-day." 

Surely there never was more glow in soldiers' hearts than when 
that order was given. At last ! At last ! 

Everything seemed to be going the way of the English now. The 
tide had turned; there were to be no more defeats. In the long run 
the English get pretty much what they want. It is their stubborness, 
their determination, that makes them rise superior to failure. Look at 
the General, had he not had enough to discourage him? And yet he had 
never given up, but, sorry for his men, even grieving for his losses, tak- 
ing all the disadvantages of the common "Tommies," accepting their 
danger, not thinking of his own safety, passing sleepless nights in 
thought, and he had never given up. He had come to relieve Lady- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 279 

smith, and Ladysmith should be relieved. And now everything was 
going as he would have it, and the troops were going on to Ladysmith 
to-day! There was orderly hurry and bustle, always orderly, for the 
General would have 'it so, and this orderliness on the part of the troops 
the Boers could not understand. Breakfast? Surely, for much was to 
be done before dinner time, and we must not be faint for food. Have 
you written home that now we are on the road, and only eight miles 
awa^ from the town?Maybe you could get your letter through to-night 
— after we get into Ladysmith. Tell the home people about the sharp 
firing across the river, a brigade or so in a lively tiff with the Boers' 
rear guard; tell them funny stories of camp life, for we are in mood 
this morning to see the humor of happenings we usually pass over as 
stupid — we are on to Ladysmith to-day. Everything all right? Good ! 
Say, how they must be watching in the town, very likely they were hur- 
rahing and would keep it up all day — till we are in Ladysmith. How 
will they receive us there? How will they receive Buller? Who will 
be the first to enter the town? Nobody would know who would be first 
for — we are all to be to Ladysmith to-day. Listen ! They are keeping 
it up bravely across the river. Odd that it takes so long to get even 
with old Joubert. Joubert is pretty good, after all, though he is a Boer. 
No flunking there, no laziness; he is a soldier. So is Cronje. By the 
way, is Cronje a prisoner, or has he escaped? Lord ! to think of Cronje 
escaping from "Bobs !" And we are on to Ladysmith, will be there to- 
day, after a few hours. On to Ladysmith — on to Ladysmith — it is like 
a line in a song, that song about Mandalay by Kipling. By the way, 
Kipling is in the war isn't he? These writing fellows are all right. A 
lot of them are in the war; Churchill, you know, and the rest of them. 
Lots of Amercans, too. We are not less than brothers, we and Amer- 
ica. The Stars and Stripes are next to the Union Jack. And we will 
be in Ladysmith to-day. And Cronje will be sent to St. Helena if he is 



28o 



THE STORY OF 



captured, won't he? But sad things were to happen that day, the 23d, 
and the fighting troops across the river who knew that more than the 
Boers' rear guard was engaged, were to pay dearly. 

On the 23d, at half-past twelve, General Hart ordered his brigade 
to advance. One by one, forming in rank as they rose from among 
the sheltering stone walls and hastily constructed cover, the battalions 
rose and in single file moved off along the railroad. The Durham 
Light Infantry and the 2d Rifle Brigade began to march at the same 
time in order to take the place of the assaulting brigade on the advanced 
kopje. Along the railway came a long line of men bearing stretchers 
on which lay the forms of wounded men. This line of stretchers had 
been moving along for three days, and was still moving. 
k The soldiers went on, shielded by the brigades who were in com- 
mand of the low kopjes, and not yet under fire. Thus for a mile, when 
the river was reached and the railway gave a sharp turn to the right. 
Here was a deep gorge where the river rushed in, while the railroad 
was lost in a cutting in the hill. In this way shelter was assured. But 
before reaching the cutting the troops had to cross the bridge that 
spanned the Onderbrook Spruit, and this was likely commanded by 
Boer riflemen. 

Along the left of the army came the rattle of musketry, and with it 
rose the sullen boom of the guns across the river and the pinging shots 
of the Field Artillery getting into preparation. The infantry moved 
nearer and nearer to the hill and the open ground close to the railway 
bridge. The head of the column barely reached the ground that was 
exposed, and the soldiers set their feet upon it, when there came the 
rattle of Mauser bullets like heavy rain on a tin roof. 

The Boers on defence were not deserted ; the ruins of their trenches 
had on them rows of slouch-hatted men. 

Two thousand yards below, the infantry of the English were still 



SOUTH AFRICA. 281 

moving across the bridge, running now, running for their lives. Here 
came the men from the river, from the sheltered railroad, across the open 
ground, into that rain of tearing, scarifying, beastly Mauser bullets — 
here they came, running into that destructive rain, and through it, to 
roll down the embankment on the further side of the bridge into safety 
once more. The Boer automatic gun joined in with the Mauser and 
puffs of wEite smoke on the bridge told where the shells dropped. But 
the infantry went on, never pausing or hesitating, and gained the far 
embankment and dropped down. More than sixty men were shot. 

The afternoon wore away. The infantry had filed across the front 
steadily, effectually, and the two battalions that led were on the east 
spur of Inniskilling Hill. Four o'clock came; then General Hart 
ordered the attack. The troops were soon climbing the slopes, but the 
ground was so badly broken that it was close to sunset when they 
reached the farthest position that could be gained without exposing 
themselves to the ceaseless action of the Boers' guns. Four hundred 
yards away were the Boer entrenchments, dark, ugly, forbidding, with 
rows of burghers in them exposed from the waist upward. The way 
by which the Inniskillings had come was open to a terrific fire from the 
Boers above, and a still worse fire from the enemy on the other hills, 
and the opening was so narrow that when only four companies were 
placed in the firing line hardly any room was left to deploy. But that 
was nothing to the men ; whole companies would rise up together and 
make a dash forward on the enemy's works. 

The defence was equally brave. The Boers were fighting magnifi- 
cently. The artillery doubled their efforts, the air was thick with shells, 
shrapnels leaped up, bullets sprang aloft. Time and again entire sec- 
tions of the entrenchments disappeared in clouds of uprooted earth and 
black smoke, and the bright blaze of the lyddite guns was like flash after 
flash of electric disturbance. Thunder, gigantic noise of sixty guns 



282 



THE STORY OF 



firing at once on the Boer trenches. The Boers kept up their musketry 
always, continuously; firm and fearless the burghers stood and used 
their rifles with awful effect, and before the storm from the Mauser 
rifles the charging Englishmen were swept away like chaff before the 
wind. Officers and men fell in groups. But their companions that 
were left kept moving forward and onward to meet the deadly fire of the 
Boers. Then as the Inniskillings almost touched their goal it was 
found there were not enough of them to reach it, and the Boers shot all 
the straighter, leaping out of their entrenchments and running to meet 
the soldiers and dealing out death at close range. 

The Inniskillings died, but they did not retreat. A few men turned 
and made for cover, where they then turned again and were at bay, but 
most of them fell in the front line. Then Colonel Sitwell with other 
companies advanced, and as the shadows of night gathered there was 
another assault, with a bloody repulse. Still the brave Irishmen would 
not leave the hill — aye, the Irish fought bravely that day and thought 
little of home rule in their own dear green island. When they saw that 
they could advance no further they lay down on the ground they had 
won and made walls from behind which they opened a galling fire on the 
Boers. In the two attacks both colonels, three majors, twenty officers 
and six hundred men fell out of a force of one thousand, two hundred. 

Then night fell and there was no more advantage gained by the 
English. Both sides kept up a heavy rifle fire all night long. Bullets 
that had gone astray leaped about the tired heads that sank on mother 
earth to get a little sleep. The stars came out and were but faintly seen 
for the heavy masses of dust-charged smoke that rose from earth to- 
ward heaven, and rested there like a pall. Through the noise of it all 
many slept, those who were awake banging away without fear of in- 
truding upon the dull dead slumber of the exhausted men. 

At earliest dawn the infantry crowded the hollows and slopes of the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



283 



hill. Shrapnel shells burst over head, killing and wounding. The top 
of Inniskilling Hill was still occupied by the Boers, though you couldn't 
see them as on the day before. The infantry of the English clustered 
behind the stone walls built .by the attacking brigade in the night. 
The Boers had made new trenches in advance of the trenches on the 
top of the hill. The firing lines of the English and the Boers were now 
barely three hundred yards apart, and the men inside must either lie 
still or be prepared to take the chances. 

The opposing forces kept like this all day, all the while firing at 
ea^li 33 6t!ier. " ?\nlf "outside on the uprooted piece of ground between 
Ifeem and wounded, the dead at rest, the wounded suf- 

fering with no one to attend to them, suffering the agonies of feverish 
thirst and the torture of their wounds, the fire of their friends as well as 
that from their foes going over them. 

The reason why there was no care for the suffering men was that at 
daybreak the Boers with a Red Cross flag came from their trenches; the 
English stopped firing, but they had: no^e^Cross flag at hand; so the 
Boers got their own wounded, which were few, and gave water to some 
of the English wounded. B3t the "BSa&yg&iW Yutrl W the pockets 
of the English dead and helpless, taking their boots and rifles. This so 
angered the watching soldiers that they fired on the Boers, though the 
Red Cross flag should have protected them — they were human and they 
could not stand the outrage of the action of the Boers. Of course 
after the English fired, fighting began again, and the wounded on the 
English side had to lie there and wait in misery or die. During the 
next day there was heavy firing again on both sides, and some damage 
done. The casualties were principally in Hildyard's English and 
Kitchener's Brigades. The infantry made no movement. 

General Buller now perceived that his plan of taking his men across 
the enemy's point and round the angle of the river would be very 



284 THE STORY OF 

costly in men, and might be impossible. His decision now was to get 
back to the Hlangwani plateau and from there try to force the Boers' 
extreme left. He was able to move his troops from one flank to the 
other, being on the interior lines. His thought was to have the bri- 
gades of his left and centre cross the pontoon bridge from the left to 
the right. In this way Hart, who had been extreme right, would then 
be almost extreme left. Having thus extended his right arm, he might 
cross the riverwhere it flowed east and west and make an extremely wide 
attack on the enemy's flank. The first thing to do was to move the heavy 
guns. This took the whole day to do. Batteries were established on 
the slopes of the Monte Cristo ridge and the spurs of Hlangwani. All 
went on well, the big guns were going back to positions on the hills. 
Towards night the firing, which had kept up all day, became a roar as 
the Boers made strong efforts to drive away Hart's Brigade. In this, 
however, they were unsuccessful. The battalions fey down with fixed 
bayonets' and hoped the Boers would make an assault. But the Boers 
were aware that the soldiers desired a personal collision, and they did 
not come near. 

The wounded were still lying unaided and thirsty on the bare 
ground outside. In consequence, much against his inclination, General 
Buller on the 25th, at break of day, sent a flag of truce to the Boer com- 
mander asking for an armistice. Joubert refused, but agreed that if 
the English would not fire on the Boers' position during the day, they 
(the Boers) would not hinder the bearers, the "body snatchers," from 
gathering the wounded together and taking them off, and giving burial 
to the dead. The English consented. 

During this work the Boers were kind enough to the English med- 
ical officers, even assisting them, and by noon all the wounded had been 
brought in and all the dead buried. The wounded had been neglected 
and suffered from exposure for forty-eight hours and they were weak 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



285 



and in a bad plight, many poor fellows torn by Mauser bullets being in 
a precarious condition for want of proper attention. No regular armis- 
tice had been agreed upon, and this was of advantage to the English, 
as they were not hindered from making military movements. At the 
same time the Boers strengthened their entrenchments. 

That day General Buller withdrew his train across the river. 
Whereupon the soldiers again lost heart, for they feared that they were 
on the eve of another retreat, and they were sure they could go forward 
if they were let alone, for they were determined and willing to brave 
anything. They were assured by the promise of a general attack from 
the other flank in a short time. 

It was Sunday ; the armistice for the bringing in the wounded and 
burying the dead caused a cessation of hostilities. It was the first day 
since the 14th of the month that left the air unbroken by the din of mus- 
ketry and cannon. At nine o'clock that night the unusual quiet was 
upset. 

The Boers who had seen the wagons going back over the bridge 
wished to find out whether the infantry were also going, and if their 
position on the low kopje's were empty. To get the desired informa- 
tion they began a fierce magazine fire on the brigades that held the line 
from Colenso village to the angle of the river. The fire was returned 
at once, and for some little time the musketry was louder than it had 
been on the previous days. There was very little loss, though, and in a 
short time the Boers, apparently satisfied that the English were still 
holding their positions, stopped firing, as did the English and silence 
reigned again, except for the sound of rifles now and then. 

But at dawn the next day fire was opened on both sides and a con- 
tinual bombardment was kept up in which the guns of the English being 
superior in numbers did the most firing, while the Boers hit the most 
men. Movements of troops were made, a new line of communication 



286 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

was opened around the foot of Hlangwani. The position of the second 
pontoon bridge was changed to a point below the falls of the river. 

At last everything was ready, and the fate of Lady smith was to be 
determined again. The men were spirited, their courage unbroken, 
though they had suffered acutely from disappointment and exposure. 
They were no longer the smart looking soldiers that had caused the 
bearded burghers to smile, but bronzed, haggard men, their uniforms 
pretty well tattered, but they were men, men to the back bone, and 
going to relieve Ladysmith. For more than six weeks the troops had 
been righting without cessation, they had camped on the ground with- 
out tents. They had started on their journey toward the little town 
with twenty thousand men all told, sometimes a few more, and of these 
three thousand, five hundred had been killed and wounded. They had 
not had the first success, their battles had been fought as though behind 
obscuring veils, for they had scarcely seen the Boers face to face, had 
shot at space, and been hit in return by foes in entrenchments who saw 
them, but could not be seen. Colenso had not put much joy in them, 
Spion Kop had done no better, Vaal Krantz arid the third day at Pieters 
did not add to their sensations of victory, and though they had heard of 
the work of Lord Roberts and how Cronje's army was all tangled up, 
Cronje himself a prisoner, yet they felt that to-morrow it was win or 
lose forever. For to-morrow would be the last attempt they would be 
allowed to make, and if they failed others must come and take their 
place for the relief of the town whose plight was the central event of the 
war. Would they succeed, or would they fail? 

Ladysmith was only a little way off. Would the glory of relieving 
it be theirs, or would it be left for others to hear the praises of a grateful 
country? And Buller? Was Buller the man, after all? Maybe in 
doubt of the general for the first time, they tried to snatch a little sleep 
to prepare them for the supreme effort of the next day. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Majuba Day — Firing at dawn — Preparations — Dundonald — Description of firing — 
—The battle— Capture of Barton's Hill— Railway Hill— In-front of fire of Maus- 
ers—English in possession of Railway Hill— Innis Killing Hill— Battle of Pie- 
ter's won — Would capture of Ladysmith end the war? — Bravery of Boers — 
Would fight "till the last man" — English in possession — Victory! 

HE next day arose cloudy. It was Majuba Day, the an- 
niversary of the great defeat. Was to-day to see an 
equal defeat? Worse, if to-day went against the Eng- 
lish. Listen ! Early as it was, dawn, a gun was firing. 
Great events were on hand, and already the men were 
astir, they had slept in their boots, no need to waste time in dressing, so 
after drinking some coffee they were ready. 

There went another gun ! Good ! And the day was cool, which was 
an excellent thing for the infantry, and everything depended on the in- 
fantry. 

Five o'clock and line was formed. The shots were becoming more 
plentiful. Surely a great day was at hand. Would there come orders 
for retreat to-day? Not to-day, not to-day, those eight miles must be 
fought only inch by inch, and without orders for falling back. 

Here came Dundonald's Brigade. A fine fellow, Dundonald, with 
his chin in the air, a look in his eye that said no "retreat !" Good for 
Dundonald! And remember this is Majuba Day, that ought to put 
something in your aim — fight as you never fought before, for this is 
Majuba Day. 

At half past six Dundonald's Brigade marched toward the Hlang- 

287 




288 



THE STORY OF 



wani plateau, the northern end. They were to take up positions on the 
spurs of Monte Cristo and all along the bluffs on the south bank of the 
Tugela. In this way they would assist the attack of the infantry. As 
they marched the guns firing grew lively, battery after battery joining 
in the thing, until there was a crisp bombardment going on, rapid, reg- 
ular. Was the memory of Majuba Hill having anything to do with it? 
Was the General also thinking of Majuba and determining that to-day's 
work should wipe out the disgrace of that other day? On we go, on 
we go, to Monte Cristo to take up our position and defend the infantry, 
especially Barton's Brigade, by long range rifle fire and by the colt bat- 
tery and Maxim guns. 

And Dundonald was brave — three cheers for Dundonald ! — and 
maybe Dundonald would not be among the last to enter the town. 

When the brigade reached the high wooded ridge which they were 
ordered to line, the excited men could see the English shells bursting 
over the Boer trenches scattering the dust and raising regular volcanoes 
of debris. Down in the gorge below followed the Tugela, the new pon- 
toon bridge to the left, near the waterfall. The brigade took its posi- 
tion. Behind them, on a spur of Monte Cristo, one of the long range 
batteries was firing. Below, across the river, there rose from the water 
edge, a low, yellow strip of land, and after it brown slopes ending in three 
hills. In succession these hills must be carried. And they were 
crowned by Boer forts and trenches. Carried? Of course they were 
to be carried. No gainsaying such a determination as that. 

Dundonald's men found it quite comfortable in their assigned posi- 
tion. They were among rocks which were conveniently at hand to get 
behind in case of bullets, and there were small trees such as South Africa 
breeds, and these gave some shade from the sun. And over there oppo- 
site was a valley, thickly wooded, and the men would have pleasure in 
raining bullets that way and keeping it clear of the enemy. But why 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



289 



did they not get to work? What was the use of delay, everything was 
ready, and the men remembered it was Majuba Day. Though the battle 
came on very slowly, the English were making haste that way, with de- 
liberation and surety. At last the guns got excited and gave expres- 
sion to the excitement in bullet language, the Border Regiment, the 
Composites, having the same duty as Dundonald's Brigade, that of as- 
sisting the infantry attack. The machine guns puffed with anger, and 
away went their fire. 

But what ailed the Boers? They were quiet to a strange degree, 
even their sharp shooters not living up to their reputations. Maybe 
they had trouble in entertaining the random bullets making flying visits, 
and were puzzled how to look after their guests. Good hosts they 
were in giving up everything to their guests, but lacking in courtesy, 
too, when they did not attempt a return of compliments. Were two 
thousand Englishmen to fire half a day at nothing? Come on, you 
Boers, you straggle bearded burghers, you Khaki youngsters from the 
towns, you Kruger rapscallions, come on, for the absent minded beg- 
gars are pleading for alms at your hands, alms of bullet and shrapnel and 
explosive shell — two thousand Tommies are taunting you and trying 
to aggravate you into reply, dandy dressed Britishers — only their dan- 
diness is a lost article — are defying you with all your dirt and laziness to 
come out and give them nip and tuck. Why should there be such 
waste as this — good cartridges thrown away, all the men aiming at 
nothing and letting fly, and not a Boer in sight, only staying in their 
trenches, waiting. Come on, the English are in a hurry; they have a 
little engagement to keep in a little town a few miles up the road and 
they want to be on the way. Can't you be taunted, valiant Boers, mean 
Boers, honest burghers, thieving burghers, contemptible Africanders, 
praying Africanders? We are firing into the places where you should 
be, and your places know you not. Rip, bang! Boom! Boom! 



2Q0 THE STORY OF 

There we go, and not a reply ! While Dundonald's men were sending 
out great volumes of unaimed rifle fire, the infantry of Barton's Bri- 
gade were coming across the pontoon bridge, turning to the right and 
along the sandy shore. 

General Buller's plan of attack was this : 

"Hildyard's Brigade to hold its position on the low kopjes; Bar- 
ton's Brigade to cross the new pontoon bridge opposite to the left of 
the enemy's position, and assault the first hill. Next, Kitchener's Bri- 
gade was to cross, covered by Barton's fire, to assault the centre hill, 
called Railway Hill. Lastly, Norcott's two untouched battalions were 
to join the rest of their brigade and, supported by General Hart's Bri- 
gade, to attack Inniskilling Hill." 

The army was thus to stretch out and reach round the Boers' flank. 
It was precisely the same plan as had been adopted before, with what re- 
sults we know. Only, now the English had their hand on the Monte 
Cristo ridge and kept it there. From the ridge the English long range 
guns could enfilade and even take in reverse some of the trenches of 
the enemy. And the enemy would not make a sign. Eight o'clock, 
and no sign. Dundonald's men were firing and waking the echoes. — 
but not the echoes of the guns of the Boers. Half-past eight and 
no sign. Nine o'clock, and the same thing. By this time the lead- 
ing brigade was across the river safe and sound. By ten o'clock the 
leading brigade had reached its position ready to attack Barton's Hill. 
And now why not go on? Why wait longer? Couldn't the officers 
see how impatient we were? Cheers for the leading brigade ! Cheers 
in the way of more rapid fire at nothing. The sun was getting warmer ; 
so were the men. Such delay, it was like going early to the panto- 
mime at Drury Lane and waiting for the curtain to go up, or at Epsom 
waiting for the races to begin. Ring up the curtain there, aren't we 
tired of playing the overture all this time? Some of the men who knew 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



291 



called it a Wagner overture, the guns made so much noise in many keys 
and kept it up till you wondered why it had been begun. Ring up the 
curtain, Mr. Manager Buller, and trot out the puppets Mr. Sub-manager 
Joubert. 

Good! Manager Buller had looked at his watch and seen that it 
was time for the performance to begin. 

Advance ! Forward ! En avant ! Vorwarts ! Oorlog ! The in- 
fantry swarmed up the steep sides of the river gorge. The Boers gave 
a rattle of musketry to stop the advance, then held themselves in check. 
The Boers knew their weakness, but weakness had rarely stopped them 
from gaining the advantage, only they meant to be careful. The Boers 
knew their left would be turned, so they extended a sort of false left be- 
yond the end of the Monte Cristo ridge and brought a gun into action. 
Did the English mind that? The Americans among them said it "cut 
no ice.' , Ice ! said the Englishmen, that was humorous — a gun to cut 
no ice. These American cousins were always ready for fun ; they would 
have their joke if they were on the way to execution. A gun to cut ice ! 
It must be humorous, that expression, but only the Americans knew 
where the humor lay, and that might be because they knew more about 
ice than the English — put it in their drink every day. But the enemy 
was beginning, with only one gun, to be sure, though a half loaf is bet- 
ter than no bread at all. Halloa, Yankees in the line ! Remember this 
is Majuba Day. That "enthuse" you, as you say? Then "Remember 
the Maine!" That's a watchword with you, eh? Remember the 
Maine ! Our ladies in London remembered that doughty craft when 
they named their hospital ship after it. Britishers, "Remember Majuba 
Hill!" Americans, "Remember the Maine!" Whoop la! and at her 
once again ! 

Bang ! Now we are in for it ! Musketry, shrapnels, lyddites, Mau- 
sers. Explosions, dust, carnage. Wheel about, rush, advance. Is it 



292 



THE STORY OF 



day? Is it night? Is it sunshiny? Is it cloudy? Hot? Cold? At 
it, at it, rifles ! At it, musketry ! Inch by inch, onward. Men down ; 
others in their place. Push the wounded aside ; never mind the dead — 
they're out of it. Once more! Now all together! Deafness, blind- 
ness — but on, on, inch by inch onward. Eleven o'clock ! It is going 
well ; not so much opposition as was expected. Twelve o'clock ! Three 
cheers! Barton's Brigade has full possession of Barton's Hill. And 
now for something else. Here to west the Boers have more strength 
than at the other side. Come artillery, can't you see what is going on 
on the hill? Barton is attacked there, heavily attacked from a whole 
net work of dongas on the east. Ah, the artillery are busy looking 
after what is yet to happen on Railway Hill. Then, Scot's Fusiliers, 
Irish Fusiliers, come on. "The Irish fought bravely." Who said 
that? A Yankee infantryman. Help Barton, don't let the blank, 
blanker, blankest Boers drive him from his position. There! Went 
down ! Never mind, poor fellows, the Red Cross must look after them. 
More down. This is splendid. Now for it ; now for it ! 

Look at the artillery! The Boers are thinking of Railway Hill 
and Inniskilling Hill. Bring on the infantry that will go for the flank 
of the Boers. On ! Double ! 

Bring on the little nine-pounder mountain battery, the lumbering 
five-inch siege guns. Now we are in for it again. Let her drive ! Let 
her drive! Where did we first hear that expression? Oh, yes; in 
camp Sunday the Chaplain preached about Saint Paul — the shipwreck 
— Saint Paul said, "Let her drive !" And how was Polly getting on at 
home with the kids? Wasn't her shiny face shinier than ever when she 
got good news of us ; and how she sighed when no news came, and gath- 
ered the kiddies around her knees and told them to pray for daddy far 
away at the war. And with our pay we can open a little public after 
we get together again; Polly minding in the day, and her man in the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 293 

evening after he has come back from his work in the city. Almost the 
scent of the roses around the cottage door can be smelt away off here in 
Africa. Roses? That's sulphur, dynamite! Polly, remember your 
man; kiddies, think of daddy! There go a dozen chappies! Most of 
them had their Pollies and their kiddies, too. Again ! Thunder, light- 
ning, gasp of heat, rush of noise. The Boers are at us indeed, every- 
where at once, and we are at the Boers — Railway Hill, Inniskilling Hill 
and the neck between the two. 

Railway Hill ! Long lines of battalions on the sides of the river 
gorge, the ground covered with men. Up, up, gradually, slowly, every 
little shelter sought, every little patch of scrub used for cover against the 
hail from above, the hot, blinding, tearing hail of Mausers. There be- 
hind the railway embankment, among the rocks are some houses, 
wrecks of houses, mere tottering skeletons of former abodes turned into 
woody crutches by the war. But there is shelter there, and men wait 
there, wait for the great movement that is to come soon. How many 
guns directed against the entrenchments? Surely, seventy. They 
send the stones and earth high into the air. The English don't like 
that, of course. Brave beggars they are, though, for they hold out so 
finely. And that Joubert, that stubborn man, he knows a thing or two 
— he hasn't much military education, but he has what Americans call 
sand, pluck, nerve. 

Four o'clock! The English find that all further advance under 
cover must be abandoned. They must face the concealed enemy in the 
open. Then advance in the open it is. 

Proudly into the open ground and upon the enemy's works ad- 
vance the Lancashire Brigade. They are right in front of the fire, noth- 
ing to shield them, not an inch of rock or scrub, nothing but luck, Prov- 
idence. A rush of Mausers, cruel instruments unworthy the use of men 
who are not savages. But we are all savages in war — think of our bay- 



294 THE STORY OF 

onets going through men who fight for a principle, not a personal 
wrong. The bayonet is more manly though, a man has some sort of 
chance to defend himself against it ; but a Mauser, a ploughing, ripping, 
tearing bullet coming from hundreds, thousands of yards away and nip- 
ping a man who cannot see the fire, who does not hear the snap of the 
gun ! Only, he hears the little humming sound of the screw like mes- 
senger that is in search of him, and thousands of these screw like mes- 
sengers hurried through the air as though they had a belated duty to 
perform. Through it all advanced the Lancashire Brigade, steadily on, 
unflinching, unafraid, stepping over comrades that fell, never swerving, 
ever keeping the enemy to the front. 

The Lancashire Brigade in front, Norcott's Riflement to the right. 
The Boer fire took them all in. But they could not, those splendid 
aiming Boers, keep back the advancing men, who gained on them, 
fronted them, came on all sides towards them — they could not keep back 
the men who remembered Majuba Hill, who remembered their com- 
rades, and their homes, their general and their country. Nearer and 
nearer, through fire, dust, scatter of stone and mud ; through deafening 
world-shaking noise and jar and tremble, through earthquakes and blur 
of sky and land. Excitement? Yes, afterward; not so much then. 
Then, only a numbing sensation of determination, only an unbending 
desire to get on, to reach the place they must, to conquer. Nearer, 
and nearer, firing close but not too effectual. Close at hand, within 
reach. Out with the bayonets. The sun was bright, the bayonets 
flashed in it as they came out, flashed in it as they charged. No slow- 
ness now, but haste, double quick, with rush and whir and any way, in 
line, out of line, to get to the human palpitating targets. 

The moving lines increased their pace, at a trot, on the run, their 
steels of death blinking as though they knew what was coming. Charge ! 
Yells of men opposed to other men, firing always hitherto accurate now 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



297 



going wide of the mark, for the bayonet thrust swerves the arms that 
hold the rifles. The soft crush of blades through cloth, cotton, flesh, 
and the Boers in their trenches become fewer and fewer. Still they 
must fire, and fire they do, at closest range, muzzle or rifle against the 
breasts of the men with the drawn and reeking bayonets. Almost, not 
quite, for the bayonets are long, longer than the rifles, though some bay- 
onets fly upward and describe a flashing somersault in the air as those 
who held them fell forward or backward with lead burning its way 
through their bone and tissue. Then some of the Boers throw down 
their arms and make a run of it, there are too many Englishmen, the tide 
runs too strongly, and better flight with a chance of life than to add more 
red gouts to those sharp steels in the hands of the Englishmen. But 
must they give up the vantage ground they have held all this time? 
Joubert expected them to keep their posts; when it came to absolute 
necessity they must obey, especially the young men from the towns who 
had learned many things after they left the home farms and consorted 
with other men, with other manners. The young men had been under 
mercantile service, even service professional, they had been taught that 
one's duty lies not only in duty to one's self, or, rather, that one's duty 
to self is most nobly conserved when we perform the duty we agree to 
perform. The young men, then, must rally, also some of the old burgh- 
ers who, lazy though they might be called, and opposed to war, were 
yet men, and men object to other men taking from them their advan- 
tage. The Republic of South Africa ! Where was it? It was in their 
hearts; so long as one member of the Transvaal lived, so long did 
the republic exist — freedom from the rule of the British that had always 
taken advantage of them. 

But look ! The sky line of Railway Hill is black with Englishmen, 
like flies on the lip of a saucer in which is sweetness. These men are on 
their knees and firing at something that is disappearing down the other 



298 THE STORY OF 

side — Boers. There is cheering, vast and mighty; cheer upon cheer 
rising above the musketry, the infernal din made by men who in times of 
peace rack their brains to discover intricate means for annihilating 
other men in times of war ; men who get down on their knees in 
churches, in their homes, and ask for mercy from Him who will some day 
come to judge them, who arise from their knees and go into the work- 
shop or the study and plan and contrive deadly things which shall mur- 
der as many men as possible in the shortest possible time. Cheering 
and cheering goes up to heaven from the flies grouped around the sau- 
cer, running of mites down the sides of the saucer — Railway Hill be- 
longs to the English. 

But all the Boers have not disappeared. The neck of land between 
the two hills is lined with deep trenches. In those trenches are burghers 
and young men from the towns. They know how to fire. They pin 
to the ground the South Lancashire Regiment, hurting it, thinning it 
out. The Boer fire increases, the Englishmen drop faster and faster. 
Were the English going to lose the day they had begun to think was 
theirs? It was so often, the English cheering too soon, their usual 
mode as they made their way through the world — as they had done 
years ago when they thought the colonies in North America were con- 
quered and punished for rising up against ill treatment, and yet those 
colonies were now the United States of America, and called themselves 
the greatest country in the world. Look, the English were losing ! 

No! 

For in an instant, springing forward in leaps and bounds, were a 
dozen Englishmen toward the Boers' entrenchment, violent, stormy, 
their long shining steels thrust out, their faces black with grime, the 
faces of death-dealers. 

And then went away the burghers in all directions, they could stand 
no more. Some held out their rifles, surrendering. Not always were 



SOUTH AFRICA. 299 

they allowed to surrender, the Englishmen had suffered too much to be 
always merciful, and their bayonets were not in their hands for nothing. 
Then added to the dozen were other Englishmen, charging for the 
trenches, a few, say half a dozen, and in a little while some two score 
Boer prisoners wound down the hill amid cheering of the conquerors. 
The slouched hats were pulled further over the faces of the burghers, 
the young men from the towns looked sullenly into the eyes of their 
captors. And the cheering men raised their voices and were satisfied. 

Everything was conquered except Inniskilling Hill. Those on the 
opposite side could see over. They saw the slopes of the hill on three 
sides alive with figures of men. They were the Light Brigade. What 
had the poet said? "Into the jaws of death rode the five hundred." 
Not these three hundred, or whatever their name. This was another 
sort of charge of the Light Brigade, and in it no one had blundered. 
There they were, bayonets out and sparkling. The hill ran up to a 
peak. Many of the Boer trenches were deserted, but the stone breast- 
works at the summit had defenders still. It was now evening, and 
standing out against the darkening sky were slouch hats and restless 
rifles belonging to the Boers. They would hold out till the last. They 
might obey or not when they were told to obey orders, but they al- 
ways obeyed themselves ; each man for himself, each man his own mas- 
ter. And now they obeyed themselves. Each man for himself, each 
his own master. The English were on them, might defeat them, but 
conquer them, never! Shells were exploding among them, scores, 
hundreds, over head, in their faces, behind, before and around, showers 
of rock and splinters deluged them. Still their slouch hats were out- 
lined on the evening sky, their restless rifles, except where some sud- 
denly went down, never to rise any more till that day when an account 
must be rendered and we shall know beyond any doubt, whatsoever, 
who was right and who was wrong. But the remainder stayed where 



300 THE STORY OF 

they were, stern, grim, upright, dirty, unpleasant to look at, their pulses 
at tension in as deadly peril as ever confronted men. 

And the infantry drew nearer. Then, why remain when the cause 
was hopeless? Who could stay the force of such a foe at this moment? 
Might there not be better work in saving their lives for another effort 
somewhere else? They ran. One man stayed long enough to spring 
up on the parapet and aiming his rifle, fired. At the same moment a 
fifty pound lyddite shell burst against him, and he was shattered away. 
Others who were running, paused and looked back for an instant, their 
rifles going mechanically to their shoulders. But the English bayo- 
nets were near, and resistance was useless, so they went on and vanished 
in the shadows. Then the victorious ones put up their sights and the 
artillery threw shells across the crest of the hill and ridge so as to over- 
take the fugitives, and some were thus destroyed. 

The valleys were stewing in the fire; dust and smoke came up in 
whirls and blinding wreaths. The infantry crowned the trenches all 
along the line in which Boers were still crouched. They beckoned the 
backward ones to come out and be prisoners. The Boers in the nearer 
trenches obeyed, not those- in the farther trenches, and the troops 
cheered and their cheers rolled down the mountain to the valleys below, 
and the troops waiting there took up the sound and it was carried out 
into the night and became one of the noises folded away in the awful 
vastnesses of space. And the battle of Pieters was won. 

Then came the orders for the cavalry to cross the river, and the 
men were filled with high expectation, for they knew that behind the 
captured hill stretched an open plain reaching almost to the foot of 
Bulwana. Down to the pontoon bridge went the men, galloping for 
all they were worth, the horses seeming to take in the situation and anx- 
ious as their riders to speed on to complete the glory of the day. 

The cavalry was about to cross the bridge, but they halted. Gen- 



f 




SOUTH AFRICA. 



303 



eral Buller had come up. He had ridden to the other bank to look how 
things were from that point of view. The Boer artillery were sending 
a heavy firing to cover the retreat of the riflemen. The General 
thought it was better that the men should not cross that night, as they 
might lose many horses. The men were disappointed, they were at 
fever pitch and would have attempted anything, everything. But the 
General had issued an order. So the brigade turned back to its former 
position. The men watered the horses, and stood about in groups. 
They would have gone on at once, horses or no houses ; they were posi- 
tive they could have entered Ladysmith that night. But the General 
had ordered otherwise. 

The darkness was coming down. The men near the spur of Monte 
Cristo could see the flashes of the Boer artillery. Shells sailed through 
the purple air from the direction of Doom Kloof, flame points like so 
many stars shooting out from them. Two more guns were firing to- 
wards the left. Another was on the right. The cackle made was noth- 
ing compared to the roar and rush of the earlier part of the day. The 
English were doing their part, but not so much was needed now. 

The wounded were gathered in, and there were many ; the surgeons 
were there and the "body snatchers" were there. The wounded, unless 
they were in mortal case, were cheerful, many of them bandied jokes 
as they were carried along; even the Boer wounded were not uncheerful 
and they eagerly took the tobacco the Englishmen offered them. The 
Englishmen sometimes patted the wounded burghers on the back and 
told them they had done well, they knew how to hold out. They bore 
no malice; success can bear no malice towards failure. The Boers 
could not love the Englishmen, but they had fought together, they and 
the Englishmen, each for the sake of their country, and now they met 
as man to man, not foe to foe, and they took the result of the day com- 
posedly, as soldiers must. Only, they could not help a little contempt 



for the English and their dependence on large numbers. It was all well 
to say that in a war of defence only one man is required for four who 
assault; the Boer was the better man. He despised war and its tac- 
tics, he was called lazy and inapt, he disdained authority. And yet he 
had led a pretty chase these English who largely came from military 
schools and were versed in the arts of war, or else as volunteers had the 
advantage of drill and regulations. The Boers were mostly raw squads, 
many of them coming from their fields and at once arraying themselves 
against the learned English and putting a good many of them under the 
sod. Surely, the Boer was the better man of the two. And now they 
would hope for a quick release ; then they would go back to their farms 
and their beasts which must be in a pretty pickle by this time. Though 
the younger men, the men from the towns, the men who had fought 
best, wondered if they might not have done better had they had the 
much despised military training — having the advantage in so many in- 
stances, might they not have seized and used those advantages to better 
purpose, and so gained victories at the last as they had gained them at 
first, before the English got to using their vast and unopposed resource- 
fulness? 

They wondered, too, if General Joubert was not to blame in more 
than one instance because of his soft-heartedness. He had several 
times, when they were on the point of success, turned the tide by some 
order tnat pointed to the kindness of his heart rather than to the hard- 
ness of his head. If Kruger knew as much of military matters as Jou- 
bert — oh, if Kruger had been a younger man and in Joubert's place, 
what different results there might have been. Still, the war was not 
over yet, by any means. Kruger would hold out till the end, "till the 
last man," and who knew what might yet come to pass? The whole 
idea of the English was Ladysmith ; they considered that if Ladysmith 
were taken, that ended the war. Would it? Not so long as the in- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



305 



suits of the English were remembered would the war between Briton 
and Boer be ended — insults which had lasted for a hundred and forty 
years, never lessening as the time went on, and which would always be 
heaped upon the Africanders as long as British rule was exercised in 
any portion of South Africa. No, the English must be swept out of 
South Africa, the Africanders must rule undisturbed, and unlimited as 
to their rights. Their fathers and forefathers had left them this heri- 
tage, and they would claim it as theirs in spite of the English, in spite of 
other foreign nations who were threatening to arbitrate, in spite of the 
whole world. 

But that night after the battle of Pieters the British troops could 
not have agreed with Boer reasoning. The troops had neither food nor 
blankets that night, but they did not mind. At last they had got what 
was more than food or shelter, that which they had hungered and 
fought for through many weeks, that which had been wrested from 
them time and again, that which was splendid and more satisfying to 
the soldier than anything this world had in its power to give — victory ! 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Preparations — The Ladysmith balloon — "Buller is coming" — Ladysmith six miles 
away — "Dundonald, on!" — The Ladysmith picket — Ladysmith relieved — Condi- 
tion of garrison — Pepworth's Hill — Bulwana Hill — Kimberley — Rhodes' regi- 
ment — General Roberts — Relief of Kimberley — Hatred of Rhodes — Letter from 
envoy extraordinary of Orange Free State — Retreat of Cronje — Colesberg — Ro- 
berts pushing on — Bloemfontein entered. 




pIIIIIfllfFTER the action of Majuba Day, General Buller had posses- 
sion of the whole left and center of the Pieters' position. 
In this way large sections of the Boer entrenchments fell 
into the hands of the English, the Boers hastily left the 
others and retreated towards Bulwana mountain. But 
neither the General nor his men looked for the ease- with 
which Ladysmith was now to be entered. 
A smooth plain and apparently without obstruction ran to the 
foot of Bulwana, but the mountain had on it a long line of ridges and 
kopjes leading to the hills of Doomkloof and these were still in posses- 
sion of the Boers. While it was true that this position lay within range 
of Sir George White's guns which placed its defenders between two fires, 
yet White's garrison at Ladysmith was feeble and weak for want of food 
and from exposure and other causes, and little might be expected from 
them. So General Buller decided that the army should rest on the 28th 
and attack Bulwana March 1st. 

The heliograph was brought into requisition and a message was 
flashed into Ladysmith telling of the success of the army, that the Boers 
were beaten, and that Buller was sending on his cavalry to reconnoitre. 

3°7 



3 o8 



THE STORY OF 



But Ladysmith was already posted about matters. The balloon had 
gone up on the 28th and Captain Tilney in the basket found out all that 
passed in the Boers' lines. He heard no artillery fire at first, and he 
feared the relieving party had once more retreated. But it was only 
break of dawn and he must wait to ascertain more till the light increased. 
The people down in the town waited, watching the balloon to know the 
news. Up came the sun, and it was full day. Then the watcher in the 
balloon saw that the English infantry were occupying the Boer position 
while mounted patrols rode forward into the plain. Then he saw the 
Boers rounding up their cattle and driving them off to the north. Next 
the watcher saw the Boers catching and saddling their horses, and in a 
little while great white wagons rumbled down the road around the east- 
ern end of Bulwana, while "Long Tom" stopped firing. 

'They're coming, our men are coming !" 

Down went the balloon into the town. 

"The army is coming, Buller is coming !" 

The people did not hail the news rapturously ; they had been fooled 
before — and yet there was no fire from the Boers, no tooting of the cor- 
nets, no beating of iron rods together to say that "Long Tom" had 
puffed and a shell was on the way. 

The army was moving on, all the same, crossing the bridge, where 
somebody had hurriedly put up a finger post on which was painted, "To 
Ladysmith." The men laughed, the joke was pleasant. On and on 
they came, men, mules, horses, guns. Ladysmith couid not yet be seen, 
ridges hid it, but the men thought they might enter by night. Under 
Bulwana the Boers could be seen, though, hundreds of horsemen and 
wagons hurrying away. Cut them off, intercept them ! Patrols started 
out in every direction, and went as far as Pieters Station, where they 
found a made-up train of trucks ready to start, but now abandoned by 
the Boers. A squadron went to the station. They were fired on from 



SOUTH AFRICA. 309 

a low hill to the west. So it was necessary to push on carefully, the 
cavalry reconnoitre and retire, infantry and guns to push forward. 
Then that little hill got a shelling for an hour. This delayed progress, 
and it was three o'clock when the patrols went forward again and the 
way seemed clear. And Ladysmith was only six miles away. 

The Boer ambulances had been invited to come for their wounded. 
The Boers were inclined to talk. Yes, it was reported that Cronje had 
surrendered, and another report said he had escaped. But no need to 
talk about such matters, even if Lord Roberts was a stronger man than 
Cronje; the ambulances had come for the wounded struck by Buller's 
men, let Roberts' men alone. Hark ! The Boers were shelling a party 
of English who had ridden on to Bulwana. Onward, to the rescue ! 
Then the Boer guns were silent, and the South African Light Horse and 
the irregular brigade advanced again. The Boers with the ambulances 
looked after them. "They will never get into Ladysmith," their eyes 
said. 

But Dundonald moved his whole command to the top of Bulwana 
and looked down. No, Ladysmith could not be seen even then; two 
or three ridges obscured it from view. And three hours more had gone 
and it was six o'clock. But Ladysmith was taken, wasn't it? Or al- 
most? And with Ladysmith taken by Buller, and Kimberley by Rob- 
erts, the war would be over? Or almost? 

But now halt ! The Boer artillery was firing ; there was no use to 
reconnoitre any farther ; the ground was horribly rocky and night was 
coming. 

So the order was given to retire. And the men moved. So we are 
not to enter Ladysmith to-night? Hard luck! But here is a messen- 
ger riding back from Gough. What? Why, the last ridge separating 
Ladysmith from the Boers had been evacuated by the enemy — the road 
is clear ! 



THE STORY OF 



Dundonald! Dundonald, on! It is the slogan — Dundonald on! 

It was evening, the road was rough, but what of that? On! 
Faster, faster ! The very horses caught the infection and rushed along 
with wide spread pink nostrils. Away ! To the next ridge, stumbling, 
clambering, but going on. Beyond the ridge, or beyond the hills be- 
yond that, or around the corner, somewhere close at hand was Lady- 
smith, the little town the whole world was heeding, Europe, Asia, Africa, 
America — "and New York and Chicago." The men laughed at that, 
" it was a joke ; New York and Chicago making the additional continents. 

They would have laughed at anything, for they were going on to Lady- 
smith, the town they had been righting for continuously for weeks, they 
would be inside the town in an hour. The excitement of it, the exhili- 
ration of it, wildness, recklessness, up hill, down hill, over rocks, through 
scrub. Blow bugles, blow ! The splendor of it, the joy of it. Sound 
up cornets, give us a tune ! And on, and on. The horses foam, their 
white foam flies through the air, their heads raise to catch the cool eve- 
ning breeze. The British guns on Caesar's camp are firing. What 
does that mean? Never mind, that could be found out afterward. And 
look — look ! There is Ladysmith, there is Ladysmith ! There are the 
tin roofs and the dark trees it has taken so many weeks to reach. A 
challenge : 

"Who goes there?" 

"The Ladysmith relief column." 

Out from the rifle pits concealed in the scrub rush, worn and tat- 
tered men, feebly cheering, their arms waving. Some of them cried, 
some of them laughed foolishly. They were the Ladysmith picket 
line. Some of the troopers laughed with them, some cried. Then 
there was a cheer — such a cheer ! Then a scramble and giving out of 
tobacco, biscuits. There was talk about White in the town — don't call 
him Sir George ; call him plain White, a man, a brave man, a white man. 




ESCAPING BOERS TO MEET BABOONS. 



SOUTH AFRICA. - 313 

That was a brilliant joke, which was made more brilliant by a "Tommy" 
who knew London music halls, saying, White was a white man and we 
would treat him white. 

But now military order, enough of fooling. So there is arrange- 
ment, Natal Carbineers, Imperial Light Horse riding two and two 
abreast, and on to Klip river. And were they obeying orders? Bul- 
ler's orders were to reconnoitre, to avoid action. To enter the town 
without orders would be a breach of etiquette. Etiquette? Bah! 

Look ! the people are in the town waiting. That is their cheer you 
hear — that is the cornet that gave warning when "Long Tom" smoked 
and a shell might be expected in half a minute. And what a song was 
heard, an anthem, "God save the Queen." The people singing or 
cheering, Dundonald rode into Ladysmith. Sir George White rode 
down to greet the arriving troopers, he raised his helmet and gave the 
order, "Three cheers for the Queen!" The relief of Ladysmith was 
an accomplished fact. 

General White attempts a speech of welcome to the two hundred 
troopers who had ridden forward to the relief of the^town, and he breaks 
down on the speech — could he have done otherwise? Before him are 
the gallant two hundred, stained by battle, stained by earth ; behind him 
are the town people worn and impoverished and hungry. So he broke 
down in his speech of welcome to the two hundred who rise in their 
stirrups and cheer again. 

"Three cheers for General Sir George White! Hip, hip, hip!" 
And here was the army crowding in, thousands of them. But that was 
later, in the day-time, the sun shining, the yellow dust rising like a 
golden veil under the feet of the soldiers, 22,000 of them, shouting, 
dancing, the sweat running down their faces. For hours they came, 
music with them, cornets, drums, bag-pipes, crowding on, laughing, 
joking; men, horses, guns, ambulances, stretcherbearers, who are 



314 THE STORY OF 

cheered not as "body snatchers" but as brave and valiant men who have 
done glorious service. And the army sees the little garrison that held 
out so long and refused to give up the town. They have put the garri- 
son into new uniforms, thrown their old tattered rags away, but their 
clothes hang on them like clothes on bean poles, for the men inside 
them are mere skeletons, the skin on their faces tight and yellow, their 
teeth sticking out from cracked dry lips, fever in their blood, hungry and 
nerveless. Many of them could not stand and fell to the sidewalks after 
they tried to make a brave showing before the arriving troops, others 
leaned on their muskets for support. Compared to them the army 
looks as though made up of giants as they come on in dirty uniforms, 
faces blistered by the sun and black with grime. 

The giants were not unmoved by the contrast. Some of them 
took off their hats to the garrison ; all cheered the garrison. And 
White? Where was White? People, don't you know that although 
Buller has come and freed you, it was White that kept you from being 
taken till he came? Of course the people know, and they go for White, 
and they grab him, and they put him into a carriage which they surge 
around, after taking out the horses, and with their hands in the poles and 
the ropes that extend the poles, they drag White through the glaring 
streets of Ladysmith, singing, making merry. And the gaunt-eyed 
garrison looked on, and cheered with the rest. 

Though picnicking and merry-making must take a rest, serious 
business must be considered. 

After extravagance of action and food, the garrison went back to 
rations of biscuit and horseflesh, while efforts were made (March ist) 
to harrass the Boers who were retreating in the direction of the Biggars- 
berg. 

General White asked for men who would go afoot five miles and 
fight at the end of the journey. Many volunteered, but they were 



SOUTH AFRICA. 315 

so reduced by want of food that only two thousand men were pro- 
nounced fit for the undertaking. 

These two thousand were formed into a column under Colonel 
Knox and left Ladysmith to attack the Boers on Pepworth's Hill so 
as to try to hinder them from reaching their trains at Modderspruit Sta- 
tion. The Boers, though, had left a rear guard, and they held the Eng- 
lish in check for several hours. But at last they were scattered, and the 
troops occupied Pepworth's Hill. The batteries shelled Modderspruit 
Station, where three crowded trains managed to pull out beyond gun 
range. By this time the English could hardlycarry their rifles, so ex- 
hausted were they. 

The same morning General Buller advanced on Bulwana Hill. 
The infantry marched down from the positions they had carried, and 
by two o'clock the plain of Pieters was full of them, with long columns 
of guns and transports in the rear. The Bulwana Hill was seen to be 
abandoned by the Boers and the army went into camp. There was an- 
other town, too, that besieged, was relieved in time— Kimberley. 

The people in the town were not to suffer as did those in Lady- 
smith. It had its hardships, terrible hardships. Shells shrieked over- 
head, people made for cover, food was scarce. Rhodes was there; 
many people thought that fact would make the Africanders all the more 
anxious to wipe out the town. His friends said he meant to stand by 
the town that made him and where his interests lay. He had a regiment 
of his own, the Kimberley Light Horse, and he paid for everything con- 
nected with it out of his own pocket. There were assaults and repulses, 
ground gained one day and lost the next, till General Roberts, on 
whom so many hopes were based, one day scattered the Africanders and 
the relief of the town came. But the joy with which the news of the re- 
lief was received was tempered with anxiety. For Cronje's army was 
not fully accounted for, the relief of Kimberley had been too easy, and 



3i6 



THE STORY OF 



the British army might be falling into one of those traps where the 
Boers had so frequently enticed them. It was not certain that Cronje 
was put to flight, only that the Boers had drawn off and let the English 
enter Kimberley, and until it was assured that Cronje had been driven 
out of harm's way the army was not safe. For Cronje was a good gen- 
eral, had proven himself a good soldier, and certainly a stubbornly brave 
man. The despatch that reached England was not very definite, and 
the censorship was blamed. It was stated that the Boers had been de- 
feated and were being pursued air the way to Bloemfontein by General 
French. Again, it was stated that Cronje's army had been very little 
damaged except as to losing stores and ammunition which were cap- 
tured by Lord Roberts' army. Conservative papers had editorials in 
them accusing Cecil Rhodes of making a convenience of the nation for 
his own pockets; he was made rich by Kimberley, he "cornered" dia- 
monds whenever he pleased, and insisted that all the disasters that had 
overtaken the country and its soldiery were due to the ambitious 
schemes of this man. It has been stated that when the news of the re- 
lief of Kimberley was officially announced people while rejoicing at the 
safety of their countrymen said, "What a pity it is the Boers did not get 
Rhodes." At the same time Lord Roseberry in the House of Lords de- 
livered a speech in which he said that the crisis in South Africa was ur- 
gent, and that should Great Britain lose South Africa, as she might yet 
do, she would lose the support of her colonies which had associated 
themselves with her in the belief that they were assisting a very powerful 
empire. With the colonies once gone, Lord Roseberry feared that the 
British empire would also cease to be, so that the present struggle was a 
struggle of life and death. 

With such gloomy forebodings in their minds, the English people 
might be excused if they permitted the relief of Kimberley to be more 
than an incident to them, and if they thought more of the reports that 




BIVOUAC NEAR COIvESBURG. 



! 




SOUTH AFRICA. 319 

England intended to use the natives if the supply of soldiers at home 
was less than the demand. It was said, also, that the trenches around 
Mafeking were deserted by the Boers and the English could have them 
for the taking; again, that the Boers were enticing the British to enter 
the Free State, knowing that this being the hot season the British would 
lose more men from heat and sickness in the arid plains of the Free State 
than the Boers could hope to bring about in battle. A great part of 
the Free State being a sandy, unwatered desert, the Boers with a few 
men could capture the supplies sent into the Free State and so harrass 
the English forces that they would be compelled to give up the cam- 
paign. Kimberley? The people in that besieged town had not suf- 
fered so greatly, if reports could be believed; they might be on short 
commons now and then, and provisions might be high in price, but the 
people, Cecil Rhodes with them, seemed to be enjoying themselves, 
having sports and pastimes even, not like Ladysmith where there was 
absolute suffering and privation. 

Then came a letter received by the American Treasurer of the 
Boers' Widows' and Orphans' Fund from the Orange Free State's En- 
voy Extraordinary at the Hague : 

"The Free State has done its very utmost to avert war by its in- 
ward policy, by its policy towards Great Britain now and in the past, and 
by its policy with regard to our sister republic (the Transvaal). We 
have not made war, nor even taken up a spiteful attitude after the Basu- 
tos had been armed against us, in spite of the treaties; nor after the 
British took their country, when we at last, after fourteen years of strug- 
gle against the never ceasing raids, had subdued them; no more after 
the appropriation by England of our diamond fields, nor when arbitra- 
tion about the rightful ownership of them was refused by England ; nor 
on account of our little grievances against England. For we desired 
peace. We desired to co-operate with England to the benefit of South 



320 



THE STORY OF 



Africa. But it has all proved of no avail. Independence has been 
forced upon us, when the Basutos proved too powerful for the British 
Colonial "Government, who first had made them strong, and now that 
we have made out of a wilderness a flourishing, civilized, progressing 
state, our independence is at stake. For our republican treaties are 
only being considered of any value as far as they give rights to England, 
and a new institution of international law is being invented, that of para- 
mountcy, which applied to Europe would make Russia paramount over 
Great Britain. 

"The policy of the present British administration has exasperated 
my people, the mose peaceful in the world. There was and is no 
choice ; my people have to fight, or to die ; for our independence is dearer 
to us than our life. 

"How could we separate from our Transvaal brothers, now that all 
told, men, women and children, both states together have not more 
souls than a small British town, who now have been forced to war by the 
largest empire the world has ever seen? 

"We could not separate, and we do not want to. God would not 
continue his visible protection of our just cause. The Transvaal people 
are our brothers and kinsmen, not only figuratively speaking, but also 
in reality. And we have availed ourselves of the experience of past 
months and put right whatever was not in perfect shape in the begin- 
ning of the war. 

"This war is doing just the reverse of what the British intended 
to attain; instead of crushing the Africanders, it is building up out of 
two states one federated Transvaal Free State or Orange Republic, 
strong by its unity and strong by the common suffering so terrible and 
so undeserved." 

And yet in a little while, with Lord Roberts to add to the victories, 
Great Britain was to change the very name of the Orange Free State 



SOUTH AFRICA. 321 

i 

to the Orange River State ! A few days later came word that General 
Cronje's whereabouts had been learned, for the Africander commander 
was now fighting what might be the decisive battle of the war. 

His retreat toward Bloemfontein had been conducted in a masterly 
manner, he nearly succeeded in bringing his men in safety to the goal. 
In General Roberts he had a man opposed to him who was very well 
acquainted with the Boer style of fighting, and who was a most brilliant' 
leader and one who was capable of inspiring his men with full confi- 
dence. 

Cronje had sent for reinforcements. Having ascertained that the 
Boer positions were very strong and any attempt to dislodge the Afri- 
canders would mean a terrible sacrifice of life, Lord Roberts.determined 
to turn his attention to the reinforcements. He made his calculations 
so accurately that he was able to intercept the arriving troops and scat- 
ter them, thus hindering the Boers from strengthening their forces and 
making the end a certain gain to the British. But the end was not yet. 
The Boers seemed to know nothing about giving up, their leaders lost 
no time in complaining about the inevitable, but as soon as the relief of 
Kimberley seemed an assured fact they began to make preparations for 
other things. General Buller had crossed the Tugela, had taken po- 
sitions, was on Spion Kop, was on the way to Ladysmith. Would 
Cronje end the war in the Free State? Hardly; he would fight to the 
last man, as Joubert would. 

Then a report was circulated that Cronje wished to surrender, then 
that Cronje had sent a messenger in haste to inform the English that 
this was a mistake — he was determined to fight to the death. 

To the death ! Why in the first four short months of the war the 
British had lost fourteen thousand men! And would Buller get to 
Ladysmith? No, said Cronje's men; Joubert would never allow that. 
And had they heard that the English were running short of men? 



322 



THE STORY OF 



Why, the Queen had issued a call to the old soldiers who had served 
her in former wars, bidding them come forward and defend her? And 
the old men had come. That England was loyal, at any rate, no skulk- 
ing, no pleading there were farms to look after. Oh, and after all Kim- 
berley was relieved, and so was Ladysmith ! 

The relief of Ladysmith was a great gain, but there were indica- 
tions that in a little while the British army would have another enjoy- 
ment. In Cape Colony there had been heavy fighting with forward 
movements in more than one direction. Cronje's force had surrendered 
at Paardeesberg and the prisoners had been sent to Cape Town. Then 
Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener paid a hasty visit to Kimberley where 
they were received with tremendous enthusiasm. On their return the 
headquarters of the forces in South Africa were established at Osfontein 
and careful reconnoisances were made with a view of locating the 
enemy, who, it was known, were concentrating with a view to 
blocking the English advances on Bloemfontein. The Boer position 
was soon found, it being of a position that could hardly be missed. It 
lay about four miles to the front of the British force at Osfontein, and 
was only ten miles long, with a river in the middle. The right of the 
position rested on a long high backed mountain north of the river, the 
space between the mountain and the river being entrenched. South of 
the river there were kopjes, and a central ridge covered the English and 
rendered it impossible to estimate with any exactness the number of the 
Boer forces. General French was operating against the north of the 
Boers' position, while Kelly-Kenny, Tucker and Colville were attend- 
ing to the southern portion. Bloemfontein was said to be undefended, 
and if Lord Roberts could break up the force opposed to him it was 
probable that a serious loss to the Boer army could be brought about. 
An important point in favor of the British was the recent rains, which 
had produced a fine crop of young grass, destined to be of the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



323 



greatest value in fringing the tired horse back to a good condition. 
Again, in Cape Colony important successes had been achieved by 
General Clements, Brabant and Gatacre. Clements learned that the 
Boer force was being weakened by the withdrawal of men who hoped 
to rescue Cronje. Clements rushed forward and occupied Rensburg 
and then Colesberg. Then he was reported to be at Joubert's Siding, 
which is' one station further north, and a very short distance from Or- 
ange River. General Brabant's Colonial Division distinguished itself. 
After a night march they attacked the Boers at Dordrecht and James- 
town, and were successful, when the General attacked and captured a 
fort the Boers were holding. The Boers retreated, the English in hot 
pursuit. 

The skill and quickness of Lord Roberts' operations, combined with 
his careful organization, filled England with enthusiasm, for though 
Ladysmith had not ended the war, proceedings were going on which 
must lead to a speedy termination of the struggle. Lord Roberts was 
continually taking the retreating Boers by surprise and outflanking 
them, with the help of French and other generals. Cronje had sur- 
rendered, he was a prisoner, and the world prophetically decided that 
little more was to be done. There was a great deal yet to be done. 

Roberts leaving the scene of Cronje's surrender sped on to Poplar 
Grove (March 7th). The fighting was practically confined to the cav- 
alry. Generals DeWet and Delarey were in command of the Boer 
forces, who were so securely entrenched in a strong position that a di- 
rect attack would have caused terrific losses on the English side. The 
cavalry made a wide turn and came upon the Boers. The Boers re- 
treated, leaving their cooked dinners behind them. A Krupp gun, and 
tents and wagons were taken by the English. President Kruger and 
President Steyn, who were present, did all they could to stop the flight 
of the Boers, but at last had to join in the retreat to avoid being cap- 



324 THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

tured. Wasting no time General Roberts continued his march and 
reached Dreifontein. There two battalions of General Kelly-Kenny's 
division turned the Boers out of two strong positions at the point of 
the bayonet. The Boers lost a hundred and two dead and twenty pris- 
oners. The English loss was not stated. During this action there 
was said to be abuse of the white flag on the part of the Boers on a 
Kopje east of Dreifontein farm when several British were wounded. 
The commander-in-chief, Roberts, remonstrated with President Kruger 
and President Steyn. and said that if such occurences were repeated, he 
would be compelled to order his troops to disregard the white flag 
entirely. 

The Boers trekked in the night after the battle of Dreifontein, but 
General Roberts early on the following morning marched some miles 
south of Bloemfontein to keep near them, while General French 
charged the Boers out of the hills commanding Bloemfontein railway 
station, and a brother of President Steyn was made prisoner. 

At dawn next day General Roberts started to reinforce General 
French, and Bloemfontein was entered by General Roberts at the head 
of the British troops, March 13th. The tide had turned in favor of the 
English indeed. There was little of those repulses so well known 
earlier in the war; advances were made and the ground entered upon 
was retained. The Boer was learning his lesson ; the Briton could not 
always be beaten, and the British army was something to wonder at as 
to its size and the orderliness of its manoeuvres. Maybe there was 
something in military discipline after all. When the war was over and 
the Boer had it his own way, maybe the young men from the towns 
would make up a standing army with all the accuracy characterizing 
that of the Briton. When the war was over and the Boer had it his own 
way ! 




=ni' 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Kitchener— Gatacre— Mafeking folding out— Capture of Cronje— Death of Joubert— 
Estimate of his character — March towards Pretoria — Baden-Powell relieved at 
Mafeking — Character of Baden-Powell — Annexation of Orange Free State — 
Flight of President Kruger — Johannesburg entered — Fight for Pretoria— En- 
trance of Pretoria — Mortality of British army — Losses of Boers, 

g| J i..illi..illi..illi..»l lS 

F ENERAL KITCHENER had been as active as General 
k Roberts. He paid a flying visit to Kimberley March 
f 9th, and next day undertook a railway journey to Vic- 
toria Road to put down a rising of the Dutch on the 
frontier of Cape Colony. 
In the meanwhile General Gatacre pushed on from Burghersdorp 
toward Bethulie where the Boers destroyed the railroad bridge over the 
Orange River, the report said. 

The same day General Clements shelled the Boers, and General 
Brabant repulsed them near Aliwal North. Ladysmith had been quiet 
since General Butter's army had entered it, there was no excitement 
there, the apathy of suffering which had waked for a few hours on the 
entrance of the troops had disappeared, it is true, but enthusiasm also 
had gone, and only the true state of affairs appealed to the people. They 
had been liberated, but that was all, war was on all around them and sup- 
lies were scarce, little business done. The enfeebled garrison would 
never be the men they had been, even though they were rapidly recover- 
ing from the pitiable plight in which the saving army had found them. 
Ladysmith was free insomuch that the Boers no longer harassed it, but 
it was not free from war. 

325 



326 



THE STORY OF 



The entrance of Lord Roberts into Bloemfontein found the resi- 
dents not angry with the English troops, though the army was not wel- 
comed, and the people feared they would have to pay the penalty for 
having tried so long to keep the British out. But Lord Roberts let it 
be known that submission would excuse punishment, and the African- 
ders submitted, though they resented the coming of the men and saw in 
it the beginning of the end of South African freedom, for already in the 
air were rumors that the English commander intended to alter the very 
name of the republic — -it was no longer to be the Orange Free State, 
but the Orange River State. 

British rule was to be established for all time, for it was scarcely 
likely that South Africa would ever again loose the yoke. In a few days 
Bloemfontein opened its shops and the burghers who had been guard- 
ing the town went back to their farms rilled with apprehension of new 
taxes, new aggressions, and even if they repeated the great trek of so 
many years ago, in what part of Africa could they go and feel safe from 
the Briton, who was ever in the wake of the Boer to lay his hand on the 
result of the Boers' industry and thrift. 

Gatacre adanced from Stormburg, occupied Burghersdorp and 
pressed on to Bethulie where he succeeded in partly saving the railroad 
bridge, which first reports said had been totally destroyed by the Boers. 

March 15th, Clements crossed at Norvafs Pont by a pontoon 
bridge, Gatacre at Bethulie by the road bridge, In a few days Gatacre 
was established at Springfontein and the country was being pacified, 
though the resident Africanders were sullen, if quiet. 

Within a month the whole aspect of affairs had changed in both 
Cape Colony and the western border, and the English now held the 
southern portion of the Free State in the hollow of their hand. And 
now General Roberts had time to give his men a much needed rest before 
the final and great advance toward Pretoria. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 3^7 

In Natal, General Dundonald had been reconnoitering with his 
mounted brigade in the direction of Drakensburg which was reported 
to be strongly held by the Boers. 

Mafeking was holding out against investment but it seemed cer- 
tain that it would be relieved in a few hours. General Methuen had ad- 
vanced from Kimberley and seized the crossing of the Vaal. And then 
came the seige where Briton and Boer were alike brave and stubborn. 
And Lord Roberts had really captured Cronje as had been reported, and 
drove off Joubert, and so commanded the southern part of the Free 
State. The carnage had been considerable, the Boers fighting with 
great energy, but theirs was indeed a forlorn hope in the eyes of the 
British who were well acquainted with victory by this time and fought 
with the strength of certain success. President Kruger would never 
give in to the English ; of that the Boers felt certain. If report said 
that he was ready to fly, taking along with him riches to the amount of 
fifteen million dollars, why let him go. He would return again, by and 
by ; he was not the man even at his age to let South Africa slip out of 
his hands. He would never give in to Cecil Rhodes, for that was what 
it amounted to. Cecil Rhodes thought he owned South Africa when 
he could twist round his finger the London statesmen who sanctioned 
everything he did and permitted him to make the war. Never mind ; 
the day would come when England would know Mr. Rhodes as South 
Africa knew him; would see the selfishness of all that he did. That 
raising of a regiment and paying all the expenses attached to it was a 
blind to hoodwink the English and make them cry out about the man's 
sincerity and loyalty. Some day the same people would stop to think, 
and when that day came Mr. Rhodes would not king it over the people 
as he had so long done. In March an irretrievable loss came to the 
Boers in the death of General Joubert at Pretoria. The bravery of 
General Joubert was recognized by Boer and Briton alike. He had 



328 THE STORY OF 

been stern and he had been merciful, always caring for his men and pit- 
iful toward his enemies. He hated to see men killed, and many a time 
he had let success slip by him rather than seize it on men's graves. He 
had commanded his men not to fire on the retreating English, he had 
hesitated to give severe punishment. He was a brave man and a good 
man. Above the smoke and din of battle he saw the cross and he heard 
the voice from it saying: "They know not what they do." Inflexible in 
his love for his country he had led the charge at Majuba Hill where 
General Colley was killed and his further gallantry was seen at the siege 
of Ladysmith where he had done all in his power to keep back the Eng- 
lish, and had succeeded for months in so doing. And he died, and the 
Boers lost a great and good man, the English an honest enemy. He 
was mourned throughout South Africa, and there was small hope of re- 
placing him. 

The Boers were now busy entrenching Kronstadt, though Lord 
Roberts was certain of rendering such entrenchments in vain. 

And staunch as the Transvaalers were they surely viewed with 
alarm the continued submission of the Free States, the steady advance 
from the south of Gatacre, Clements and Brabant, and the ease with 
which Kitchener dealt with an outbreak in the Carnarvan district. Al- 
ready there appeared to be talk among them of a final stand at Pretoria, 
and when mention is made of a retirement to the citadel a defending 
force is generally on the down grade. But there in Pretoria they would 
make a stand, they would fight to the death, they would give Roberts 
all he wanted, and a little more. The burghers would not tamely sub- 
mit; they would be lazy no more now that the last chance had come, 
while the young men from the towns gritted their teeth and said better 
a death on the soil of South Africa while it was still free, than a life on 
that soil made into English territory. 

Now at Bloemfontein there had been a fault, caused partly by the 



SOUTH AFRICA. 329 

outbreak in the Carnarvan district. General Roberts, while promised 
the aid of the other generals, was practically alone, and he might have to 
work for all the commanders in the coming fight at Kronstadt. He 
wanted to see the railway communication fully restored between Bloem- 
fontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and East London before starting 
eastward. A powerful argument for a stay at Bloemfontein lay in the 
fact that Lord Roberts' success in the north of the Free State depended 
upon secure lines of communications. There were indications that 
scattered parties of Boers in the absence of Roberts would slip around 
to the rear and cause trouble. The advance from the south continued 
steadily, but with studied slowness, the object being to impress the Free 
States and put an end to subsequent rising. Commandant Oliver being 
defeated by General Brabant at Aliwal North, fled in the direction of 
Sand River. 

Meanwhile all was quiet at Springfontein and General Clements 
occupied Philipopolis and received the submission of a number of 
burghers who were said to be beginning to feel that the old government 
of the Free State was at an end, and that further resistance was at an 
end. They may have thought thus, or they may have laid down their 
arms only temporarily, waiting for a chance to turn on the English once 
the Boers had a success and the forces of England were less lofty in their 
attitude than they now were. For they would never believe that free- 
dom from the English rule might not be accomplished by some supreme 
stroke which would make that freedom unassailable ever afterward. 

In Natal there appeared, as time went on, to be no appreciable 
move either on the part of the Boers or the English. Each seemed to 
be playing a waiting game. 

And alas, poor Mafeking ! The few hours in the course of which 
the English had hoped to see the tribulations of the garrison brought to 
an end stretched into days, and still no news of relief came. 



330 THE STORY OF 

General Plumer, after coming within a short distance of the be- 
leagured town, was forced to retire. The situation of the town was 
very grave, and it was hoped that a great effort would be made by Gen- 
eral Methuen to relieve gallant Baden-Powell and his brave garrison 
hemmed in there. 

March 29th, Lord Roberts' protracted halt at Bloemfontein was re- 
lieved by an engagement, but the Boers were successful. 

On the 31st there was another engagement where once more the 
English were worsted. But at last the long looked for advance of Lord 
Roberts' army began from Bloemfontein and was followed by some 
striking results. All of April there had been skirmishings, and the 
English stubbornly resisted, and at last moved on. 

May 3d, the first important stage on the march to Pretoria began, 
and Brandfort was carried in a masterly fashion. The Boers who had 
intended a stout resistance were taken by surprise and retired hurriedly. 

May 5th, two English divisions with mounted infantry marched 
twenty miles to the Vet river, which Lord Roberts attempted to cross 
and was foiled by a heavy fire of Boer guns on the opposite bank. 
Three hours of brisk artillery dueling was kept up, but the English guns 
could not silence those of the Boers, and the bulk of the English troops 
bivouacked for the night three miles from the river. Shortly after dusk, 
however, General Hutton's Mounted Infantry turned the Boers' right, 
and in a very dashing manner crossed the river under a heavy shell and 
musketry fire. 

The next morning it was discovered that the Boers had evacuated 
their position and had fled towards Sand river and Kroonstadt. Lord 
Roberts' force crossed the Vet and proceeded seven miles and occupied 
the junction of the branch line to the important town of Winberg. A 
quantity of military stores fell into the hands of the English. 

So a substantial portion of the distance between Bloemfontein and 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



331 



Kroonstadt was covered, while at the latter place the Boers had a strong 
stand. 

But Mafeking was not yet relieved, the Boer investment growing 
closer. 

There were now two hundred thousand men in the English force, 
shipped from time to time, and all anxious to assist in the settlement of 
matters. All at once the good news was flashed across the wires in the 
middle of May that Colonel Baden-Powell, who had so finely held Mafe- 
king against its besiegers for over six months, was at last relieved. 
Mafeking was not Ladysmith, but the men who held it were brave as 
lions. The rapidity of Lord Roberts' advance will be realized when it is 
stated that it was May ist when the veteran commander inspected a 
division as it marched from Bloemfontein north under General Pole- 
Carew. Brandfort was captured by Pole-Carew and General Tucker 
and Hutton, and on May 3d was entered by Lord Roberts and Lord 
Kitchener. Fresh fighting ensued on the Vet river which was crossed 
May 6th, Winberg and Smaldeel falling into the hands of the British. 
Then Generals Pole-Carew, Tucker, Hutton, Ian Hamilton and Bruce 
Hamilton cleared the Boers from the north bank of the Sand river 
May 10th. President Steyn had fled from Bloemfontein, and on the 
1 2th of May Lord Roberts' army entered Kroonstadt without opposi- 
tion and the Union Jack was hoisted by an English woman. The occu- 
pation of Kroonstadt added to the differences of the Free Staters and the 
Boers of the South African Republic, the former accusing the latter of 
making use of them and deserting them, the Transvaalers saying they 
would no longer fight in the Orange Free State, and retiring to the Vaal 
river, where it was supposed they would make a stand. 

The outburst of enthusiasm caused in England by the tidings of the 
relief of Ladysmith was repeated when the news arrived of the raising of 
the prolonged seige of Mafeking. The trials of the brave garrison had 



332 THE STORY OF 

been equalled by the resourcefulness of the skillful chief, Baden-Powell. 
The Boers had shelled Mafeking day and night. There was a desperate 
attempt to storm the place May 12th, but it held out as usual, and it was 
relieved May 18th. 

As the war in South Africa progressed, the calm, heroic figure of 
Baden-Powell became the chief centre of interest as he held Mafeking. 
He got up entertainments to distract the attention of the beleagured 
people; he planned by day and night, scouting under cover of darkness; 
he matured a system of defence which enabled him and the handful of 
brave men he commanded to repel every Boer attack. He kept Cronje 
at bay. He cut off the retreat of the Boers when the relief came, and 
captured over a hundred prisoners, including Commandant Eloff, 
Kruger's nephew. 

The indomitable energy displayed by Lord Roberts personally was 
considered wonderful in a man of sixty-seven years of age. Up every 
day at dawn, he was early in the saddle and rode hard till afternoon, 
when he halted and kept touch with his various divisions by telegraph. 
His splendid example inspired his men whose fine marching powers 
were the admiration of the country. The enemy was completely out- 
flanked and compelled to retreat from their various defensive positions. 

General Louis Botha, in command of the Boers on the north bend 
of Rhenoster river, left hurriedly for Pretoria two days before the Brit- 
ish troops arrived, so it was reported, while his lieutenant left the en- 
trenchments precipitately on May 24th, when he learned that General 
Ian Hamilton was at Heilbron, that the English cavalry had crossed the 
Rhenoster some miles lower down stream, and that General Smith-Dor- 
rien's Brigade was ready on his flank. 

Lord Roberts did not pause. On the Queen's birthday his ad- 
vance guard crossed the Vaal and was only just in time to prevent the 
coal mines on both sides of the river from being destroyed. At church 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



333 



service the following Sunday, Lord Roberts proclaimed the annexation 
of the Orange Free State. From Klip river, on Monday afternoon, 
May 28th, his Lordship cabled to London that a twenty mile march 
that day had brought his forces within eighteen miles of Johannesburg, 
and that Generals French and Ian Hamilton had engaged the enemy 
eight miles to his left. 

Johannesburg was not entered on Tuesday, as was rather prema- 
turely announced to cheering audiences in some of the London theatres 
that evening. But Roberts was enabled on the 29th to establish his 
headquarters close at hand, with no casualties in the main column, and 
not many in the cavalry and mounted infantry. The enemy had not ex- 
pected him till the next day. The junction connecting Johannesburg 
by rail with Pretoria and Natal was seized, along with some rolling 
stock. Johannesburg was quiet and no mines had been injured, so 
Lord Roberts proposed to enter the city, "the gold city," at noon on 
•Wednesday. The particulars regarding Major General Baden-Powell's 
doings when Mafeking was relieved by Colonels Makon and Plumer, 
May 17th, could not but increase the high estimation entertained for 
this skillful soldier. The dispatch with which he led the brave garrison 
and his combined relief columns to the attack on the Boers' lines the 
very morning on which he was relieved proved conclusively that he had 
plenty of courage left. It was only when he had routed the Boers that 
the intrepid defender of Mafeking returned for what must have been a 
heart-stirring march past the cheering market place. The thanksgiv- 
ing service was reserved for May 18th, when the General showed his tal- 
ent for apt speech making in his pithy addresses to the garrison, the 
nurses and the gallant relief forces. He evinced political tact, more- 
over, in wiring to the Canadian Premier his warm appreciation of the 
Canadian artillery. 

At the head of a considerable force, "B. P.," as he was called, did 



334 THE STORY OF 

not let the grass grow under his feet, but swiftly entered the Transvaal, 
occupied Teemst and made for Litchenburg. 

Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener were now perfecting their plans 
for the advance from Kroonstadt which the Boers were strongly for- 
tifying. 

From Pretoria it was reported that Presidents Kruger and Steyn 
were determined to continue the war unless they were granted favorable 
terms. From Natal came word that the Boers had taken up a position 
at Laing's Nek. 

Tuesday, June 5th, was another memorable day in the history of 
the war. President Kruger had flown to Pretoria, and was taken pris- 
oner. At Balmoral Castle, where the Queen was staying, the word was 
brought of the capture of the stubborn old President. The Union Jack 
was at once run up beside the Royal Standard, and all London was wild 
with excitement. 

"Extra ! Extra ! Kruger taken !" was the cry of the newsboy. 
"Oom Paul is taken," said the people merrily. 

In South Africa "Tante Sanna" was not merry. Her husband was 
in the hands of the enemy, and she did not know what would become of 
him. But Kruger was taken ; that was the thing. 

The fact is, Lord Roberts' rapid advance across the Vaal river de- 
moralized the Boer commandos which retreated to defend Johannes- 
burg and Pretoria. Lord Roberts peacefully entered Johannesburg. 
This entrance was preceded by a parley. 

May 30th, the Boer Commandant visited Lord Roberts under a 
flag of truce, and it was agreed that the occupation of Johannesburg 
should be delayed twenty-four hours "to avoid anything like disturbance 
inside the town." 

May 31st, Lord Roberts, with Commandant Krause at his side, 
rode to the government building where the British flag Lady Roberts 



SOUTH AFRICA. 337 

had made was hoisted and Johannesburg was declared entered. The 
fight for Pretoria took place Monday, 4th of June. Lord Rob- 
erts directed the battle in person. He and his column started at 
daybreak and after a march of six miles found the Boers in force on both 
sides of Six Miles Spruit. The English Mounted Infantry and Yeo- 
manry dislodged them from the south bank. General Ian Hamilton 
advanced to the left and filled up a gap. The Boers were driven back 
to Pretoria. 

"The surrender of the town must be unconditional," was Lord 
Roberts' answer to the Boer Commandant General Botha's messengers 
through whom he asked the British General for terms of peace. 

So it came about that on June 5th Pretoria was entered by Lord 
Roberts and the long imprisoned ones there were free. 

After the triumphs of Johannesburg and Pretoria the fighting, of 
course, was kept up, and the 13th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry was 
captured May 31st by a force of Boers. Lord Methuen went with all 
speed to the rescue, but was too late to save the battalion, though he 
routed the Boers. While there was little authentic information as to 
what was passing on the Boer side, there were reports from Pretoria, 
the Boers would surrender but for the opposition of President Kruger. 
Matters seemed to have reached that stage when only the will of the old 
President stood between the continuance of the war and complete sub- 
mission to the British. 

The English government might easily have brought the struggle 
to an end, it would seem, by offering such terms to the Boers under 
arms regarding the President as would have rendered his will of little 
importance, if, as it was alleged, his opposition was based on purely 
personal grounds. There was every reason why the British govern- 
ment should wish to bring the war to a speedy conclusion, and if there 
was really a disposition on the part of the Boer leaders still in the field 



338 THE STORY OF 

to lay down their arms on terms not absolutely humiliating to brave 
men, there should have been no difficulty whatever in ending a conflict 
in which the British army had little more to gain in the way of victory. 
Secretary of State Reitz, however, was credited with the assertion that 
the Boers were in a position and determined to carry on the struggle 
to the end. 

Meantime the British bill of losses was a big one. Up to June 9th 
the mortality in the army since the beginning of the war from all causes 
was 410 officers and 6,501 men; 778 officers and 10,013 men wounded, 
and 186 officers and 4,486 men missing and prisoners. To these are to 
be added 10,481 officers and men invalided, more than one-half of whom 
were described as incapacitated from earning a livelihood. The total 
of all ranks in the army alone brings the number of casualties up to 
33,855. The losses of the natives, British Indians and others with the 
army was estimated at 17,000. 

According to figures supplied by the chief officer of the Boer com- 
missary department the Boer forces had dwindled from 61,000 at the be- 
ginning of the war, to 28,000 on March 13th. If the figures were cor- 
rect, and there was no reason to doubt them, there were not more than 
20,000 Boers then in the field. The British out-numbered them ten to 
one. This made it very well for the British if there were to be successful 
offensive operations against entrenched troops armed with modern 
weapons. 

But the operations now were not in the nature of frontal attacks 
upon selected positions. The British had tried that game and become 
convinced that they could not win at it, and they were not cracking 
their skulls against any more stone walls. 

General Roberts finding better use for his troops than by throw- 
ing them blindly into Boer traps at the foot of a kopje, by successive 
turnings and threatenings of the Boer flanks compelled the enemy to 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



339 



abandon positions which his entire army could not take by direct assault. 
The Boer army, however, with only twenty thousand men was formid- 
able as guerrillas, and could harrass the British in many ways without 
risking a pitched battle against hopeless odds. Given time, Lord Rob- 
erts could break them up into small fugitive bands and scatter them in 
the mountains, where they might be annoying, but not a serious men- 
ace. Were he compelled to weaken his force materially by drafts for 
service in China where the "Boxer" outrages had now roused the entire 
world and all nations were arrayed against the Celestial Empire, much of 
his present advantage would disappear, the Boers would become more 
formidable and the British demand for unconditional surrender might 
be withdrawn and negotiations for peace substituted. It remained to be 
seen what would be done, for unless the war was ended immediately, 
China held the key of the situation in South Africa. The Boer seemed 
to understand perfectly the complex state of affairs in English matters 
and to have welcomed the difficulties springing up in China as a salva- 
tion for their cause, for they held on and waged the fight in their own 
way with little apparent desire to finish up matters in a hurry. 

June 14th, telegraphic communications between Pretoria and the 
South were once more established. Lord Roberts directed fierce fights 
against the Boers near Pretoria. Pretoria itself and Johannesburg were 
quiet. 

The British War Office issued a report from Lord Roberts under 
date of Pretoria, June 13th, which said: "The enemy evacuated their 
strong position during the night, and have retired to the eastward. 
Buller's force and mine have afforded each other mutual assistance. 
Our occupation of Pretoria caused numbers of Boers to withdraw from 
Laing's Nek." 

The Lorenzo Marquez correspondent of the London Times said: 
"Among the Boer agents here there is talk of negotiations being re- 



340 



THE STORY OF 



opened with a view of securing peace. The nature of these negotia- 
tions is not made public." 

A London cablegram on the morning of the 14th was made to say : 
'The pacification of the whole of the Transvaal, especially the wide 
spaces far from the railways, is looked upon as a business requiring 
months rather than weeks.' , 

While a London despatch put it thus: "The British prisoners at 
Nooitgedacht are suffering terribly from cold, and arrangements are 
being made to provide them with shelter. Their rations are identical 
with the scanty fare served out to the burghers." 

Thus it was seen that the war was by no means over, that the Boers 
were holding out, that maybe they were saying that it was Providential 
the trouble with China had broken out, that their cause was again to 
prosper and they would once more possess their freedom. But General 
Cronje had been sent a prisoner to Saint Helena, that place where the 
first Napoleon had gnawed his heart out. 

Then Cronje's son had to surrender to Lord Roerts in an en- 
gagement at Klerksdorp, though the Boers whom General Methuen 
had routed a little while back were recuperated and attacked a recon- 
struction train. At which London read this from the correspondent of 
the London Telegraph, telegraphing from Cape Town : 

"I understand that General De Wet, in addition to the Derbyshire 
Battalion, captured two companies of the City Volunteers and two 
companies of the Yeomanry, two men only escaping to tell the tale." 

Then came a few days lull when no important news reached Lon- 
don. President Steyn was still trying to encourage the burghers, Gen- 
eral De Wet was trekking north of Bloemfontein. General Botha's 
next stand was to be at Paardekop, but with a reduced force. 

Lord Roberts sent word to the war office that he hoped Buller was 
at Standerton. That Heildelberg would shortly be occupied, and that 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



343 



the Orange River Colony (no longer Orange Free State) would be 
completely cut off from the Transvaal. 

Then came word that Kruger's son had surrendered to Baden- 
Powell; Botha's army had retired, entirely routed by Ian Hamilton's 
mounted infantry.^ General Buller sent the next despatch to the war 
office : 

"Laing's Nek, June 15 —Now that Natal is clear of the enemy, I 
wish to call attention to the disgraceful way in which private property 
was treated in the part of the colony they occupied. Their willful and 
needless damage is visible everywhere, and houses, when not completely 
wrecked, have been desecrated. That this has been done with the con- 
sent of the leaders is proved by the fact that while in Charlestown every 
house was wrecked, in Volksrust, two miles off, but in the Transvaal, 
every house was intact." 



1 

I 

CHAPTER XIX. 

General Roberts thinks the war nearly over— Troops dismissed — Troops to go to 
China in the new war — Pacification of the Transvaal — Kruger -with $25,000,000 
gold — Boers consider Free State still free— Fighting — Despatches and reports — 
Kruger will have peace only on his own terms — Boer peace envoys — Their ad- 
dress to the people of the United States— Suffering in British army— Flight of 
Kruger. 

D now there were indications that Lord Roberts consid- 
ered the end of the war as not far off. The Natal Volun- 
teers who had seen such hard service were dismissed to 
their homes by General Buller. It was said that a com- 
plete division of regulars was to withdraw from Buller's 
army and embark for China. The troops drawn from In- 
dia were to go next 
And was the war to be ended so soon? 

One of Buller's divisions, the Fifth, arrived at Wakkerstrom June 
17th. The town had already submitted, the farmers gave up their arms, 
they had th^ir fill of fighting. Wakkerstrom is an important province, 
and the command of burghers from that place was considered a crack 
one of the Boers. 

In the western half of the Transvaal pacification also went on. 
Without any great loss of life, Routenberg was occupied by Baden- 
Powell and a thousand stand of arms given up. 

But there was fighting still, on the Sand River, throughout the 
provinces. 

345 




346 THE STORY OF 

Lord Roberts sent a message to General Louis Botha suggesting 
disarmament and complimenting the bravery of the burghers. It was 
pointed out that the surrender would be without dishonor to the burgh- 
ers, and would prevent much suffering. General Botha asked for six 
days armistice in order to confer and consider. Lord Roberts con- 
sented to five days. Finally General Botha declined to accept the pro- 
posal, and hostilities were renewed. 

The British followed the commandos, which retired on Middle- 
burg, the Boers destroying the bridges and carrying off cattle and pro- 
visions, leaving the country barren. 

Advices from Machadodorp said that the Boers had an abundance 
of oxen and ammunition and arms and were preparing heavy wagon 
trains for a retreat to the Lydenburg district, where the cheifs were de- 
termined to make a stand. A despatch from Lorenzo Marquez stated 
that the Boers were still working the mines, and that with President 
Kruger were eight car loads of gold valued at $25,000,000. 

Reports said that Kruger was in feeble health. In the middle of 
June, Mr. Steyn, in a proclamation, declared the Free State still free and 
that the fact of the army being still in the field rendered General Rob- 
erts' annexation contrary to international law. 

According to a Cape Town despatch General Kitchener had a nar- 
row escape from capture in the engagement at Leeuw Spruit, June 14. 
He was sleeping in the repair train, when it was attacked, and many of 
the engineers were captured. 

General Kitchener's sleeping car was at Kopjes Station, when the 
Boers, under General De Wet, suddenly opened a rifle fire at 3 A. M. 
Kitchener managed to reach his horse, and galloped to Rhenoster, two 
miles distant. The Boers numbered 900 men, with three guns. They 
burned the culvert, which had just been rebuilt, and derailed the train. 

The Boers alleged to be hemmed in by General Rundle began shel- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



347 



ling Ficksburg June 19. It is said they apprehended that a force was 
marching from the north upon them, and hence they would endeavor 
to break through southward. 

Then the War Office received the following despatch from Lord 
Roberts at Pretoria : "Hunter's advance column occupied Krugersdorp 
without opposition June 18. Methuen, who was escorting a large con- 
voy to Heilbron yesterday, routed a force under Christian De Wet, who 
endeavored to prevent him from entering the little town; Methuen had 
only three casualties. 

"Baden-Powell left this city to-day on his return to Rustenburg. 
The country is quieting down in that direction. This satisfactory state 
of affairs will be materially assisted by the capture between here and 
Rustenburg June 19 of two guns by Hutton's mounted infantry from a 
body of the enemy under Commandant Duplessis. 

"Railway and telegraph communication with Cape Town is now 
completely restored. All is quiet here and at Johannesburg. The 
shops are open, and the market is daily becoming more crowded and 
businesslike." 

Passengers who arrived at Lorenzo Marquez June 20th reported 
heavy artillery firing, the Boers abandoning Machadodorp and retiring 
northward. 

Again it was said that President Kruger was at Altmaar, and that 
he had left there. and escaped, and was on the high seas bound for Eu- 
rope, even that- he had decided to go to the United States and would es- 
tablish himself somewhere in Pennsylvania. Then again, that the Pres- 
ident with his gold was in a railway train between Machadodorp and 
Nelspruit. It was hoped in London that General Buller's advance 
westward would hasten the conclusion of hostilities by cutting off all 
communications between President Steyn's and General De Wet's 
forces in the Orange River Colony and General Botha's burghers in the 



34» 



THE STORY OF 



Transvaal. Buller arrived at Sandspruit, many Boers meeting him on 
the road and giving up their arms. It was the same story all over, Boers 
surrendering, and the war hastening to a close. The Paris Exposition 
had opened, and this is what the Boers printed and posted at the corners 
in Lorenzo Marquez: 

"The Paris Exhibition has closed and France has declared war 
against England. Fifty miles of railway has been destroyed in the Free 
State, and 30,000 British have surrendered. ,, 

A despatch from Lord Roberts, dated Pretoria, June 22, says : "Ian 
Hamilton's column reached the Springs yesterday en route to Heildel- 
burg, where they will join hands with Buller's troops, who reached Paar- 
dekop yesterday, and will be at Standerton to-morrow, thus opening 
communication between Pretoria and Natal and preventing any joint 
action between the Transvaalers and the people of the Grange River 
Colony. 

"Baden-Powell reports from Rustenburg that he found the leading 
Boers very pacific and cordial on his return journey hence. Command- 
ant Steyn and two actively hostile field cornets had been captured dur- 
ing his absence. 

"Lord Edward Cecil, the administrator of the Rustenburg district, 
has to date collected 3000 rifles. 

"The Commissioner at Kroonstad reports that 341 rifles have been 
handed in at Wolmarnstad." 

A despatch from Kaatsbosch says : "General Dundonald, with the 
Third Cavalry Brigade, occupied Standerton to-day without opposition. 
The burghers left yesterday, after having blown up the railroad bridge 
and doing other damage. The infantry marched twent-two miles to- 
day and camped at Kaatsbosch Spruit to-night." 

Despatches came thick and fast now. One of them was to the 
effect that President Kruger's principal condition for immediate peace 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



349 



was that he be allowed to stay in South Africa. Then came a despatch 
June 23d : 

"General Steyn's forces in the Orange River Colony are for the 
time drawing most of the attention of Lord Roberts, rather to the neg- 
lect of Commandant General Louis Botha and President Kruger. The 
severance between the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony was 
completed yesterday, as Lord Roberts said it would be, by the arrival of 
General Buller's advance guard, under Lord Dundonald, at Standerton. 

The wide net around the 6000 or 8000 men under General Steyn 
will now contract. Adroit manoeuvring and brisk fighting are likely 
to take place, because until all resistance south of the Vaal is at an end 
the British line of communication will not be safe. 

"President Kruger's sons, who surrendered to General Baden- 
Powell, are back on their farms and working peacefully. General Ba- 
den-Powell rode with only 300 men from Mafeking, and he made the 
last section of his ride to Pretoria with only thirty-five. Lord Roberts 
met him in the outskirts of the town, and escorted him to the Presi- 
dency. 

"General De Wet's farm houses have been burned by the British." 

General Botha was said to possess full powers to conclude peace 
and that he was willing to surrender, but that President Kruger re- 
mained obdurate; he would have peace on his own terms or not at all. 

At Kimberley Dr. Jameson addressed the electors. He sketched 
the position of the Rand at the time of the raid, emphasizing the discon- 
tent of the working classes, who were groaning under grievances and 
were ripe for revolt. He denied that the raid caused racial troubles, 
induced trie Boers to arm or hampered the Imperial Government. 
Race feeling, he continued, always existed, and armament already had 
been commenced by the Transvaal Government, while the Imperial 
Government did not intend to take effective steps to redress the out- 



350 



THE STORY OF 



landers' grievances. This was the first time that Doctor Jameson had 
broken his silence on the subject of his celebrated raid which many peo 
pie believe to have been the indirect cause of the war. 

The force available to President Kruger in June was officially esti- 
mated as from 1 5,000 to 20,000. 

The Standerton correspondents asserted that his sole idea was to 
hold out until after the American Presidential election. Mr. Kruger 
was reported to have issued a proclamation on June 17 announcing that 
the Russians had declared war upon the Japanese and that Great Britain 
must help Japan. 

Lord Roberts sent the following despatch to the war office : 

"Pretoria Presidency, June 25. — Clements successfully engaged a 
body of Boers yesterday near Wynberg, where he had gone to pick up 
supplies and some heavy guns preparatory to acting in combination 
with columns from Lindley, Heilbron and Heidelberg. He drove the 
enemy north of Sand Spruit with loss. No casualties are reported. 

"Ian Hamilton reports that Heidelberg is the most English town 
he has yet seen. The inhabitants gave him a great reception. The 
streets were crowded and decorated with bunting. Captain Valentine 
hoisted the Union Jack in the market square amidst the cheers of the 
populace and of the British, Australian and other colonial troops. 'God 
Save the Queen' was sung, the crowds heartily joining in. The poor 
royalists had a rough time lately. 

"Hutton's mounted infantry skirmished with the Boers yesterday 
a few miles southeast of Pretoria. Captain Anley is reported to have 
managed the little business very well. Lieutenant Crispin and one of 
the Northumberland Fusiliers were wounded/' 

General Warren wires that the rebellion has been extinguished in 
the north of Cape Colony, but he does not mention the capture or dis- 
persal of the considerable Boer force which has been occupying that 



RKUFF OF KIMBFyRIyY: ARRIVAL, OF THFy MUTTON. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 353 

part of the country. Interest mostly centres in the Orange River Col- 
ony, where General De Wet is causing the British much annoyance. 

Boer peace envoys had come to the United States early in the 
year. They were courteously received, but the American people re- 
mained neutral. The envoys sailed for home June 26th. They issued 
an address to the American people. 

After expressing regret at their inability to accept many of the in- 
vitations extended to them, they expressed their thanks to the Ameri- 
can public for "the deep sympathy they have shown for the cause of the 
two struggling republics." 

Continuing, the address says: "We now feel convinced that the 
boastful allegation of the Colonial Secretary and other British states- 
men that the citizens of this great country sympathized with the British 
empire in its attempt to crush the liberty and independence of our two 
small States is absolutely devoid of truth." 

The address then goes at great length into the history of the rela- 
tions between Great Britain and the Boers, which it characterizes as 
"one of violated faith and broken pledges, cloaked under the display of 
magnanimous and irreproachable principles." Coming down to the 
discovery of gold in Johannesburg, in 1886, the address says: "All the 
forces of land greed and gold hunger, stimulated by the desire to avenge 
what is known as the battle of Majuba Hill, were let loose." 

Then follows a history of the political agitation which culminated 
in the Jameson raid. 

"Mr. Chamberlain, Sir Alfred Milner and Mr. Cecil Rhodes," con- 
tinues the address, "are the terrible trinity which had brooded over and 
shaped the destiny of South Africa during the calamitous period. These 
gentlemen combined forces so as to achieve by subtlety and craft and 
misrepresentations what Dr. Jameson and the raiders failed to obtain 
by open violence." 



354 THE STORY OF 

The address declares that the capitalists control the press of South 
Africa and that the editors of these subsidized journals were appointed 
special correspondents of the principal London dailies. The broad 
charge is made that Mr. Chamberlain's revival of the suzerainty claim 
in 1897, his public utterances, Sir Alfred Milner's speeches and inflam- 
matory despatches and the efforts of the South African League, under 
the presidency of Cecil Rhodes, were all directed toward the ultimate 
destruction of the two Dutch republics. 

The address then takes up the various internal questions which con- 
tributed toward the outbreak of war, and discusses them in great detail, 
making wholesale denials of the English representation. 

The address declares that at the Bloemfontein conference both 
President Steyn and President Kruger endeavored to avert the catas- 
trophies by conceding even more than the original demands on the fran- 
chise question, but their efforts were fruitless. It is asserted that the 
war was forced upon the Boers, and the claim is advanced that they took 
up arms only in self-defence. The address contends that the policy of 
Great Britain was designedly shaped so as to compel the Boers to send 
on the 9th of October what is commonly known as their ultimatum to 
Great Britain. 

Taking up the campaign to date, the address says : 

"The Boers may in the end be defeated by overwhelming numbers 
and may ultimately be forced to surrender, owing to difficulty of secur- 
ing ammunition and provisions, but the conduct of the present war, as 
well as the history of the past one hundred years, justifies us in saying 
that they will never be conquered." 

The address concludes by saying the envoys do not ask the direct 
or forcible interventionof the United States, but a continuance of public 
sympathy and support. The address is signed by Abraham Fischer, C. 
H. Wessels and A. D. Walmarans. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 355 
Another sort of address came the same day : 

"Pretoria Residency, June 26. — Sir Charles Warren reports that 
the rebellion in Cape Colony, north of the Orange river, is now over. 
The last formidable body under Commandant de Villiers surrendered 
on June 20, consisting of about 220 men, 280 horses, 18 wagons, 260 
rifles and 100,000 rounds of ammunition. 

"General Baden-Powell reports that pacification is going on sat- 
isfactorily in the Rustenberg district." 

Considerable excitement was caused by reports concerning the suf- 
fering in Lord Roberts' army. Mr. Burdett-Coutts sent a long letter 
to the London Times detailing the great suffering endured by soldiers 
owing to mismanagement, which led to a number of questions in the 
House of Commons. 

In response, the Government leader, A. J. Balfour, made a long 
statement, during which he said that so far as the Government was 
aware, not any of the sufferings of the sick or wounded was due to in- 
sufficiency in the supplies sent out. 

Mr. Balfour then proceeded to read extracts from correspondence 
with Lord Roberts on the subject, in which the British Commander-in- 
Chief dwelt on the difficulties of transport owing to his rapid advance. 
He could quite understand that people imperfectly experienced in these 
matters were concerned at hearing of the hardships the sick and 
wounded had to undergo. He did not wish to shirk from responsibility 
or screen any one, and suggested that a committee of medical men and 
persons of sound common sense proceed to South Africa to investigate 
the charges. Mr. Balfour also informed the House that the Government 
agreed to the appointment of an independent committee, as suggested 
by Lord Roberts, and he, to-morrow, would propose a nominal grant 
for the army medical corps, so that the House would have an opportun- 
ity to thoroughly thresh out the matter. 



356 THE STORY OF 

The war office issued correspondence with Lord Roberts regarding 
the charges of Mr. Burdett-Coutts. On June 4 his attention was called 
in brief telegrams to the allegations, ^and also to other complaints of a 
general breakdown in the hospital system. 

Two days later he replied in part as follows : "The principal medical 
officer reported that the arrangements at Kroonstadt were in all re- 
spects in good order, and Lord Methuen said they were thoroughly sat- 
isfactory. I was deeply distressed at being unable to make suitable ar- 
rangements for the sick on our first arrival at Kroonstadt, but it is ob- 
vious that a certain amount of suffering is inseparable from the rapid ad- 
vance of a large army into an enemy's country." 

On June 20 the war office cabled Lord Roberts that disquieting re- 
ports regarding the hospital were accumulating, and asked him if any- 
thing could be done, and particularly whether more nurses were needed. 

On June 25 Lord Roberts replied, saying that he did not wish to 
shirk responsibility or to screen the shortcomings of the medical corps, 
and he suggested a committee of inquiry. He said there had been an 
abnormal number of sick at Bloemfontein, due to the exhausting nature 
of the march and the terribly unsanitary condition of the camp at Paar- 
deburg, where the only water available for drinking flowed from the 
Boer camp, higher up, where the river was crowded with decomposing 
animals, and also with considerable number of wounded after the fight 
on March 10. 

To improvise accommodations at Bloemfontein for such a number, 
which had become 2000 before he left Bloemfontein was no easy task, 
said Lord Roberts. No tents were carried and the public buildings had 
to be turned into hospitals. In three months there had been 6309 ad- 
missions to the hospitals of patients suffering from enteric fever, while 
the deaths numbered 1370, about 21 per cent. Lord Roberts observed 
that he did not know whether this would be an abnormal rate in civil 



SOUTH AFRICA. 357 

hospitals in peace times ; but, if the rate was abnormal, it was due to the 
exhausted state of the men and not to the neglect of the medical corps. 

All this caused a loud outcry on the part of the papers. The peo- 
ple had thought only of victories; they knew of deaths in battle, but 
sickness in the army was not heroic nor scenic, and they could not thrill 
with enthusiasm hearing of it. They now undertook another side of 
war and its terrible costs. 

Then came the news — "Flight of Kruger." Yes, the old fellow 
had gone, he was making himself safe; he did not design to let the 
enemy do what they pleased with him. 

This despatch is published by the Daily Telegraph from its special 
correspondent : 

Pretoria, June 28, via Bloemfontein.< — Kruger's flight with money 
has greatly disgusted the Boers. Two "deputations have proceeded 
hence to Machadodorp to induce him to surrender. As he is afflicted 
with Bright's disease he was told that the English would probably allow 
him to remain in South Africa under parole. Botha's force may possi- 
bly number 7000 men and seventeen guns. As he declined to submit, 
Roberts determined to press forward. 

Since Sunday, French, on the left, and Ian Hamilton, on the right, 
with the Eleventh Division in the centre, have been endeavoring to sur- 
round the enemy's position in the hills, fifteen miles to the east, beyond 
Silverton. Three days' fighting had taken place, but on Tuesday night 
the enemy decamped eastward along the Delagoa Bay Railway. Our 
total casualties are under 150. It is hoped that Buller may be able to 
intercept the Boer retreat. 

And the Parliamentary inquiry into the stories of the suffering of 
the British troops went on. June 29th, when the House of Commons 
went into committee of supply on the supplementary vote for the army 
medical service, introduced for the purpose of debating the charge of 



358 THE STORY OF 

hospital mismanagement in South Africa made by Mr. Burdett-Coutts, 
Parliamentary Secretary of the War Office, Wyndham, presented the 
Government's defence. The allegations as to neglect of the sick and 
wounded were frankly admitted to be true to a lamentable extent. The 
disabled were exposed, he said, to terrible hardships ; but it was not due 
to any stinting of supplies, but to the insuperable difficulties of distribut- 
ing them, of which there has been an embarrassing accumulation in 
South Africa. Every demand on the Government in behalf of the 
troops, he continued, had been complied with. 

The officials in South Africa said the hospitals had beds in excess 
of the demands. There were 5000 beds in Natal and 13,600 in Cape 
Colony. There were in South Africa 466 army and 440 civilian medical 
officers, and 556 female and 5668 male nurses, besides the doctors and 
nurses engaged locally. 

Mr. Wyndham contended that, to have given a true impression of 
the state of affairs existing, Mr. Burdett-Coutts should have painted a 
companion picture, showing the difficulties encountered in supplying 
75,000 troops on the march, which was carried out practically under the 
conditions of a huge flying column. The single line of railroad, with 
bridges broken, he asserted, had to carry 1020 tons daily by order of 
Lord Roberts. 

The army, Mr. Wyndham further remarked, should not starve or 
be defeated. He concluded with contending that Mr. Burdett-Coutts* 
picture rested on the fallacy that Bloemfontein was a secure base hos- 
pital, whereas, during the whole period referred to, Lord Roberts' flanks 
and communications were threatened, and actions occurred daily. 

Burdett-Coutts replied that he repeated the charges already known, 
and declared that a single day's trains on the railroad to Bloemfontein 
would have saved the situation. But, he claimed, the interests of the 
sick and wounded were postponed for interests which were neither vital 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



359 



nor strategically important. Many residences occupied by officers, he 
said, might have been taken for the use of men who were dying. But, 
presumably, they were not taken because no medical equipment was 
available for them. There was not much use in the Government giving 
the figures of supplies June 15, when the tragedy was over. His whole 
point was that Great Britain was unprepared. He thought the respon- 
sibility rested, not with an individual, but with the system, which was 
entirely inelastic and deficient. 

And the war was going on in spite of the flight of Kruger and the 
pacifications. The war office heard from Lord Roberts : 

Pretoria, June 29. — Paget reports from Lindley that he was en- 
gaged on June 26 with a body of the enemy, who were strongly rein- 
forced during the day. A convoy of stores for the Lindley garrison 
was also attacked on June 26 ; but, after a heavy rear guard action, the 
convoy reached Lindley in safety. Our casualties were ten killed and 
four officers and about fifty men wounded. 

The fight reported yesterday was under Lieutenant Colonel Gren- 
fell. Brabant came up during the engagement. Total casualties of the 
two columns, three killed and twenty-three wounded. On the previous 
day, near Ficksburg, Boyes' brigade was in action with a body of the 
enemy. Our casualties were two officers killed, four men wounded and 
one man missing. 

Methuen found yesterday that the Boer laager near Vachkop and 
Spitzkop had been hastily removed in the direction of Lindley. He fol- 
lowed the enemy twelve miles, and captured 8000 sheep and 500 head of 
cattle, which the enemy had seized in that neighborhood. Our casual- 
ties were four men wounded. Hunter continued his march yesterday 
toward the Vaal river unopposed. A few farmers along the route have 
surrendered. 

Springs, the terminus of the railway from Johannesburg, due east, 



3 6o THE STORY OF 

was attacked early yesterday morning. The Canadian regiment, which 
garrisoned the place, beat off the enemy. No casualties are reported. 
Lieutenant North, reported missing after the attack on the construction 
train, is a prisoner of the Boers. 

July 3d came the report that Commandant Philip Botha, who was. 
captured by the British near Kroonstadt, May 17th, had been released 
under heavy bail. He was to reside at Aliwal North. The same day 
Lord Roberts in a despatch said that he did not believe the war was 
ended by any means, and that he had put a stop to the return of civilians 
to Pretoria and had ordered the miners back to Bloemfontein. 

The same day we heard that Major General Coke with the Tenth 
Brigade reconnoitering June 29th toward Arnesfoort, in the Transvaal, 
found 2000 Boers with guns in a strong position. He shelled them, but 
the attack was not followed up. Coke's casualties were two killed and 
six wounded. 

This number of casualties seems trifling in the face of the fight. 
The British had had heavy losses, though. The war office reported that 
since the beginning of the war, exclusive of sick and wounded, the losses 
had been 29,706. 

This news reached us on July 4th, when we were celebrating the 
hundred and twenty-fourth anniversary of our independence from the 
thrall of England. We had good feelings for England now ; we were 
brothers and allies in many instances. Still our love of freedom made 
us on July 4th, 1900, fling the Stars and Stripes to the wind and read our 
Declaration of Independence with much of the same feeling that was 
our ancestors when in '76 they first heard the glonous words announc- 
ing that we were "and of right ought to be, free and independent. ,, 

That same day came the sad story of destitution in Johanesburg and 
outlying districts : 

"Both here and at Johannesburg several families of the men who 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



363 



have been fighting against us are being fed. Some are in a state of 
destitution. At Heilbron, where the food supplies ran out, groceries, 
meat and other supplies of food are being distributed among the inhab- 
itants under the supervision of the Relief Committee. Arrangements 
are being made for the distribution of oats for seed purposes to farmers 
actually in need of it, those who are unable to procure seed oats in any 
other manner." 

Again, on Independence Day we heard that the hospital ship 
Maine had reached Southampton with wounded soldiers from South 
Africa. Princess Louise and Lady Randolph Churchill met the vessel, 
with other distinguished people. Princess Louise, after addressing 
the patients on board with kindly words of welcome, presented each 
with a silver medal bearing a portrait of the ship surmounted by Amer- 
ican and British flags. To each man was also presented a pipe and a 
pound of tobacco. 

And still the war went on and the end was not yet. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Was the war over?— Interview with President Kruger— "Fight to the bitter end"— 
Hospital Scandals— Trou ble with China— The "Boxers"— The Boers' not giv- 
ing up— 'Dissatisfaction of England over the war — "The war is not over," said 
Kruger — British losses in men— Costs in money — Coming to agreement — 
Terms— The end in sight. 

T might now be said that the war was rounding up to a 
finish. The great battles had been fought and gained 
by the English, and there was left only a series of stub- 
born skirmishes which were irritating rather than 
serious. 

July 5th, news came that Lord Roberts' field trans- 
port was supplying the columns trying to hem in General De Wet, and 
who as yet had not succeeded in their endeavor. A thousand Boers 
were hanging on General Clery's right flank in his advance to Greyling- 
stad. All this was trivial, taken as war, so the war was trailing out to 
an end. 

But the same despatch told of an interview had with President 
Kruger by a newspaper correspondent at Machadodorp. The corres- 
pondent inquired if there was any truth in the report that the President 
had opened peace negotiations. Said Kruger: "The President and 
people of the South African Republic most earnestly desire peace, but 
only upon two conditions — the complete independence of the Republic 
and amnesty for the colonial Boers who fought with us. If these con- 
ditions be not granted, we will fight to the bitter end." 

Secretary of State Reitz supplemented the President by stating that 

365 




366 



THE STORY OF 



there was no use discussing the question of peace, as the Boers were de- 
termined to fight on till their independence was conceded. 

Lord Roberts reported from Pretoria "under date of July 5th that a 
patrol of Carbineers was captured by the Boers near Pretoria on the 
4th. He also said that trains were running to Greylingstad from Natal ; 
and that a Soldiers' Home had been opened at Heidelberg, the inhabit- 
ants subscribing the initial expenses, and that a total of 2631 stands of 
arms had been delivered to General Barton at Klerksdorp, Krugersdorp 
and Potchefstroom (all in the Transvaal). The same day news came 
that the British Parliament was about to probe the hospital scandal, that 
a number of the members of the First Canadian contingent sent to 
South Africa had sailed for home after bitterly complaining of their 
treatment in the field hospitals. Of 11 50 Canadian troops, 800 were 
stricken with enteric fever, mostly due to the putrid water of Paarde- 
berg. Troubles with China were also agitating England and the whole 
world. The Boer war seemed to sink into almost insignificance along- 
side of the report of "Boxer" outrages in the Flowery Kingdom where 
all foreigners were about to be exterminated and Russia, England, 
France, Germany and the United States were roused and prepared to 
send troops and transports. The Boer delegates who had been touring 
the United States arrived in Paris from New York on the 6th of July. 
They were met at the station by the President of the Municipal Council 
and several Senators. The crowd that had gathered greeted the dele- 
gates with acclamations and there were cries of "Down with England." 

A despatch from Maseru, Basutoland, July 5, says: The Boers 
made a determined attempt to retake Ficksburg (Orange River Colony) 
yesterday. They attacked the place at midnight. The fighting was 
short, but fierce, lasting an hour, when the Federals were repulsed. 

A special despatch from Pretoria says that an intertribal fight, in 
which more than 1000 natives are engaged, is taking place on the plains 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



367 



north of the Boer position. The fight is for possession of Boer cattle. 

July 7th, the war office issued the following despatch from Lord 
Roberts : 

"Pretoria, July 7. — General Buller arrived this morning. He 
looked very well, and is apparently none the worse for the hard work he 
has gone through during the past eight months. 

Another despatch received by the war office from Lord Roberts 
was as follows : 

"Vlakfontein, July 7. — A convoy passed Greylingstad to-day. Be- 
fore reaching a defile in the hills the Boers shelled the advancing col- 
umns. Colonel Thorneycroft's men occupied the hills to the right of 
the narrow pass, keeping the Boers back on a ridge to the left, while the 
infantry deployed in plain sight and the artillery occupied a position 
under the ridge. The Boers worked their guns rapidly, but the howit- 
zers replied with effect, and drove back the Boers over the ridge. The 
convoy passed safely, and when the force began to retire the Boers again 
advanced with a gun on the ridge. The British left field battery replied. 
The first shell forced the gun to retire. ,, 

July 9th, a correspondent in Lorenzo Marquez said: "A general 
movement of Boer settlers into Gazaland, Portuguese territory, seems 
to be in contemplation. Already large Herds have been driven across 
the border. The Portuguese welcome the movement." 

Were the Boers growing tired? Had they come to their "last 
man?" After events hardly proved so, for July 10th Lord Roberts* de- 
spatches reveal, the Boers are unusually active, both in the Orange Col- 
ony and the so-called pacified Western Transvaal, but without produc- 
ing any serious impression upon the British arms. 

In Cape Town, July 9th, it is reported that President Kruger's re- 
tention of large amounts of gold at Machadodorp has created the utmost 
discontent among mercenaries, both officers and men. 



368 THE STORY OF 

They expected substantial rewards for championing the Boer in- 
terests, but have received nothing. It is added that visiting foreign- 
ers, who have subsequently advocated intervention, are believed to have 
received substantial sums. Proofs, it is further asserted, have been dis- 
covered in Pretoria which promise startling developments. 

At a meeting of Africander women here to-day, called to protest 
against the annexation of the republics to the British empire and the 
punishment of the rebels, Mrs. Olive Schreiner Cronweight denounced 
the British policy. She said she was ashamed of her English descent, 
and added: "If the republics are annexed, if the Africanders are op- 
pressed, peace is impossible. Every trench of Boer dead is a grave of 
England's honor. Every bullet making a wound also finds a bullet in 
the heart of the empire." 

So the Boers were not giving up, and the people we had all along 
been taught to suppose almost childish in their simplicity, almost brutal 
in their lack of civilization seemed to have gradually become like the rest 
of us — men and women fighting for a principle with dignity and intelli- 
gence and a nice regard for what they called their rights. 

The following despatch was received at the war office in London on 
the 9th, from Lord Roberts : 

"Pretoria, Sunday, July 8. — As the enemy for some days had been 
threatening our line of railway by trying to get round our right flank, 
I despatched Hutton July 5, with mounted infantry, to reinforce Mahon, 
and with orders to drive the Boers to the east of Broenkerspruit. 
These orders were effectually carried out during Friday and Saturday 
by Mahon, who was attacked by some 3000 men, with six guns and two 
Maxims. Our casualties were : Wounded, two officers, including Cap- 
tain Nelles, of the Canadian Mounted Rifles, slightly, and twenty-six 
men. 

"Steyn left Bethlehem on the night of July 4 for Fouriesburg, be- 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



369 



tween Bethlehem and Ficksburg, accompanied by Christien De Wet 
and other Free State Commanders, with troops reported numbering 
3000 men." Then in swift succession came these reports: 

"Bethlehem, a town in the Orange River Colony, held by the Boer 
Commander De Wet, was captured by the British under Clement and 
Paget on Saturday. Positions commanding the town were taken by 
assault. 

"The Boers have evacuated all their positions around Senekal, in 
the Orange River Colony. 

"The Boer delegates, accompanied by Dr. Leyds, the diplomatic 
agent of the Transvaal, paid a visit to M. Delcasse, the French Minister 
of Foreign Affairs, in Paris yesterday. 

"A special despatch from Lorenzo Marquez says a Boer bulletin 
has been issued, asserting that the Boers have re-captured Waterval." 

And this significant one: "A despatch from Cape Town says it 
is understood at the close of the war Bloemfontein will be the headquar- 
ters of the Commander-in-Chief, the seat of the South Africa Court of 
Appeals and eventually the Federal capital of South Africa." 

And from Pretoria, dated July 10th: "The British, success at 
Bethlehem has considerably improved the prospects for peace, it is 
stated. The whole of the Government of President Steyn, of the Or- 
ange Free State, has surrendered except President Steyn himself. 
Those officials who are prisoners have been allowed to communicate 
with President Steyn for the purpose of attempting to prove to him the 
uselessness of a continuance of the struggle, which can only produce 
bloodshed without any counterbalancing advantages. The collapse of 
the forces of General De Wet is expected daily. The Boers here say 
that the men have taken a solemn oath never to personally surrender, 
but they are beginning to see the unfairness of sacrificing life to personal 
wishes." 



37o 



THE STORY OF 



The picturesqueness of the war seemed to be dying out; it was a 
mere prosaic holding on, all the zest dissipated. 

But on the 13th a little excitement came in the report that the 
Boers had captured Nitral's Nek, eighteen miles west of Pretoria, to- 
gether with' two British guns, the greater portion of a squadron of the 
Scots Grays and ninety men of the Lincolnshire Regiment. The Brit- 
ish garrison was overpowered by a superior force, and reinforcements 
sent from Pretoria arrived too late. 

So it was not all surrender with the Boers yet. The London papers 
acknowledged this fact, and there was further irritation in the following : 

"London, July 13. — Lord Roberts* despatch reporting still another 
unfortunate occurrence throws a serious light upon the state of affairs 
in South Africa. There has been some comment recently regarding 
the virtual absence of progress by the immense army under command 
of Lord Roberts, but few could have been found to believe that the scat- 
tered Boers were able to inflict such a defeat so near Pretoria. 

"Instead of the surrender of all the remaining Boers being immi- 
nent, as recent telegrams had hinted, it seems they have been making 
a concerted attempt to surround or recapture Pretoria." 

On the 14th, there reached the papers an interesting report from 
Pretoria, dated July 12th: "Colonel Mahon, reinforced by General 
French's brigade, yesterday took all the positions held by the Boers in 
the neighborhood of Rietfontein. A number of Boer dead were found. 
The British casualties were trifling. 

"It is understood, upon good authority, that the Boers have em- 
ployed armed natives. Two of the natives leaped from cover when a 
small party from the Lincolnshire Regiment stepped up and demanded 
their surrender. A soldier stepped forward and shot both of the natives 
dead. One officer who succeeded in making his escape had an en- 
counter with an armed native. It is feared that the losses of the British 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



373 



were numerous. About thirty of the British soldiers straggled back to 
camp to-day. According to all accounts a great force is being assem- 
bled to prevent further progress of the Boers. 

"British prisoners who have escaped to Kroonstad report that Gen- 
eral De Wet's force of 10,000 men, with ten guns, expelled from Beth- 
lehem by General Clements and General Paget, have taken up a strong 
position fifteen miles to the southward, in the hills around Reteif Nek. 
President Steyn is reported to be with them." 

The same day we heard from General Clery : 

"Witpoort, Transvaal, July 12. — General Clery's column, which 
has moved easterly, is now camped here; During the march the 
mounted infantry engaged 200 Boers, shelling a ridge occupied by the 
burghers. It is anticipated that this movement will clear the country 
from Standerton to Heidelberg, as the troops found but one remaining 
laager, from which the Boers retired hurriedly." 

The newspapers now declared that the war was practically over. 
And yet peace was very far away if the despatches were to be believed. 
July 1 6th the London papers printed that "the Boers continue massing 
from ten to twenty miles outside the Magaliesburg range, near Pretoria. 
Their laagers now extend from the Delagoa Bay Railway across the 
Warsburg line westward. 

"Commandant Grobeler, with the Zoulpansberg commando, Com- 
mandant Lemmer and others are among the leaders, while General 
Botha himself is said to be encamped between Junkan, on the Elands 
river, and Hartebeeste Spruit. The enemy's total strength is variously 
estimated, but is probably about 10,000 men, with many guns. 

"As has happened on previous occasions, the periods of inaction 
of our main army have given the enemy confidence, so the Boers' raids 
creep closer in. The Boers indulge in night sniping and attempt to 
cut off detached bodies of troops. 



374 SOUTH AFRICA. 

'The situation is annoying, but without actual danger, whatever 
the enemy's plans may be, and whether they are counting upon inside 
help or not." 

At the same time we were told that President Steyn had given up 
all hope and would have surrendered, but that one of his generals 
threatened to shoot him if he did so, and that Steyn was kept in his own 
laager as a prisoner of his own people. People began to feel that too 
many disasters had come to the British army when everything seemed 
to be going towards English victory. General Roberts was not blamed, 
but the Boers had a way of holding out which was peculiarly harassing, 
and that it might have been as well to offer terms after Pretoria was oc- 
cupied rather than carry on the quarrel as it was now carried on, with 
little glory to the British. At the same time there were arrangements 
made which should go into operation once the war was over, a war that 
could end only in one way, and that way as the English would have it. 
Along came the news of one of these arrangements : 

"It is understood that Johannesburg will be the temporary capital 
of the Orange River and the Transvaal Colonies. It will also be made 
the headquarters of the High Commissioners. When the settlement 
is finally completed it is believed that Bloemfontein will become the 
Federal capital of South Africa and the seat of the residence of the 
Governor General. The Governors of the colonies will reside at Cape 
Town, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg." 

A Cape Town despatch had it that the Irish-Americans were ar- 
ranging preliminaries for the emigration of over 10,000 Boers to the 
United States when the war was over. 

But President Kruger stepped in and said that the war was not 
over yet, and that he would refuse to surrender until his supplies were 
exhausted. 

England might well ask itself if the war had been worth while. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 375 

The British losses had been fully 50,000, and if peace were patched up 
now it would be necessary for Great Britain to keep thousands of troops 
in South Africa for years to come, and the drain upon her fighting 
strength would be constant and considerable. For the Boers were as 
determined as ever that they would gain independence from British 
rule and that determination would not easily die amongst them. 

Lord Roberts attacked Middleburg on the 21st of July, and there 
was fierce fighting, President Kruger being with the burghers and di- 
recting the defence. General De Wet cut Lord Roberts' line of com- 
munication both by railway and telegraph and captured a hundred high- 
landers and a supply train. The heavy fighting was kept up for three 
days and the British losses were large. 

And the cost in money ! The total army estimates of the English 
up to the latter part of July were said to amount to 76,309,153 pounds. 
Surely it would seem that South Africa was worth much to a nation who 
could afford to pay for it as dearly as England did. And the end was 
not yet ! There were lively brushes between the Boers and the English, 
but there seemed to be an end of regular battles. The English ever 
moved forward, the Boers retreating and doing what they could in the 
way of burning the bridges that spanned the smaller rivers, thus retard- 
ing the movements of the enemy. Lord Roberts and Baden-Powell 
forced them from one position after another, and restored the lines of 
railway the Boers had destroyed. 

In the hills south of Bethlehem there was quite a heavy engage- 
ment, July 24th and 25th. The Boers were strongly entrenched and 
fought stubbornly, but they were forced to retire. There would be lit- 
tle use in detailing the accounts of the small engagements that now took 
place. It was recognized that the war was practically over, though 
there might be a serious disaster before there was a prospect of the whole 
Africander force laying down their arms. The disturbances in China, 



376 



THE STORY OF 



as has been said, surely heartened the Boers, and made them believe 
that the English troops would be needed in the new fight and South 
Africa be left to itself for awhile, when the Boers might gradually as- 
sume power again, wearing the English out by the old method of per- 
sistence. But the English were not so careless of their advantages in 
Africa as it would seem they had previously been. In Parliament it 
was proposed to leave in South Africa a standing army of not less than 
45,000 men, and not one advantage gained was to be relinquished. 

General French now occupied Middleburg, in the Transvaal, while 
General Hunter had driven 6000 Boers with a large number of wagons, 
army stores and.cattle into the mountains where their escape would be 
very difficult. De Wet was being watched on the high hills near Reitz- 
burg, where he was resting. Operations seemed to come to a stand- 
still. Pretoria telegrams announced that Lord Roberts had returned 
there with his staff, apparently considering it useless to spend his ener- 
gies against a constantly retreating foe. 

Commandant General Botha, with several thousand Boers, like 
General De Wet, had eluded Roberts and were at large and might give 
trouble. There was bad weather, thunder storms and deluges of rain, 
accompanied by intense cold, and while the Boers were used to such 
a climate, the English suffered from it and chafed under the tantalizing 
idea that the Africanders still held out. Then all at once came the an- 
nouncement that a big fight was expected, when if the Boers should be 
beaten everything would be at an end, and Kruger would trek through 
Swaziland to Delagoa Bay and take a steamer to Europe. 

This fight took place July 26th, outside of Naauwpoort Nek, in the 
Bethlehem Hills when nearly a thousand Boers surrendered to General 
Hunter. Other detachments soon followed in their wake and laid down 
their arms, so that organized resistance to British rule in the Orange 
Free State would end. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 377 

The Boer generals Prinsloo, Villiers and Croother also surrendered 
to General Hunter. Thus 986 men, 955 rifles, a Krupp nine-pounder 
and 1432 horses passed into the hands of the English. The cause in the 
Orange Free State was now hopeless. 

The Transvaal burghers still held out, however, and were not dis- 
couraged. The Free States had entered the war out of sympathy with 
the Transvaalers and because of treaty obligations. They refused to 
cross into the Transvaal, and after the capture of Pretoria many of them 
returned to their homes. The remnant of the army now broken up by 
General Hunter had been useful in making raids and occasionally break- 
ing the English lines. Their dispersion left Lord Roberts with an over- 
whelming force free to move against the Transvaal Boers who were 
kept in the held by Kruger and were prepared for a long seige in the 
mountainous region about Lydenburg. Kruger could have no hope 
of winning the independence of his people as long as England had an 
army of 200,000 in South Africa. But he hoped that as Great Britain 
might yet be forced into war with France or Russia, the English would 
be obliged to abandon South Africa or so reduce their forces there as to 
give the Boers a chance to fight on something like equal terms. But 
there was nothing short of a great European war that could loosen the 
British grip on South Africa. Yet it was the purpose of Kruger to pro- 
long his resistance until all hope of help through other wars had passed 
away. He had his men east of Pretoria, though a force under General 
Delarey was to the west and sufficiently strong to besiege Baden-Powell 
in Rustenburg. General Kitchener went to Krugersdorp to organize 
a force for ttie relief of Baden-Powell. 

The Boer army was pitifully small, only a few thousand strong, and 
brave and determined though Kruger might be, where was the hope 
that he could win? 

Tighter and tighter the English were drawing the lines, and while 



378 THE STORY OF 

it was folly for the Boers to longer hold out in unequal struggle, no 
one could fail to respect them for their refusal to give up as long as the 
slightest chance availed them. And the chance always seemed possible 
to them that they might hold on until, tired out, England in almost dis- 
gust at pettiness developing from what had originally been a weighty 
matter would yield and grant the liberty the Africanders insisted upon. 
For had not England accomplished much? Did she not now call her 
own all the paying industries in South Africa, not to mention enormous 
territory which she had taken acre by acre? 

The attention of the world was flagging as to the conflict, for an- 
other conflict, that in China, claimed attention — the threatened upris- 
ing of the whole civilized world against Chinese barbarities perpetrated 
in Pekin and spreading north and south. The Boer war was practically 
over. England might concede more to the Africanders than she at first 
proposed, but she was the victor as she was bound to be. Whatever 
terms might be agreed upon which should bring about peace, England 
was in possession, and in possession she must remain. The Boer had 
fought stubbornly and well, and it was no shame to him to give up his 
arms to a more powerful enemy and return to his farm or his beasts and 
take up the old simple life again. Only, President Kruger must yield 
with honor, not be branded by two much coercion. 

There might be fighting yet, but the thing was done, and in a little 
while peace would be established. 

The whole story of the Boers in South Africa has not been told, 
however. The stubbornness of the people is not a quality which will 
leave them. They will not too readily fall into the ways and habits of 
the English around them. They are ^ plodding, careful people. The 
tortoise in the race beat the hare because it did not stop, while the hare 
tarried often, sure of its success in the long run. "Without haste, and 
without pause," is a German phrase. The Boers will go on ; they will 



SOUTH AFRICA. 



379 



not become as Englishmen in spite of all that may be said. They hold 
themselves freemen, accountable to no monarchy. This feeling has 
been with them since they first came from Holland and established 
themselves in the wilds of the country which under them became a great 
and prosperous land. 

It is not visionary to believe that in time they will rise again from 
the present disaster and once more and on firmer lines declare that they 
are a republic, and accepting forms and fashions more in consonance 
with the spirit of the times, hold that declaration till it will be recog- 
nized for all time, modified by an agreement with Great Britain which 
will in no wise call for servility, but a conservative recognition of Eng- 
land's rights gained at the point of a too numerous bayonet. 

Throughout August the attitude of the Boers remained unchanged. 
The backbone of the war was broken, but the English were still harassed, 
while the Boers held out for terms of peace which should be to their 
wishes. No such terms of peace came. There was heavy fighting at 
times, then desertions from the Boer army where many of the men were 
dissatisfied with Kruger for insisting that the struggle should be kept up. 
News came of a Boer plot to capture General Roberts, which plot fail- 
ing, the ring leader of it, Lieutenant Cordua, was taken and shot by 
Roberts. September ist General Roberts formally proclaimed the 
Transvaal to be British territory. At this time Presidents Kruger and 
Steyn were reported as being at Barberton, preparing for flight. Of the 
great Boer generals, Joubert was dead, and Cronje in exile on Bona- 
parte's sad island, St. Helena. 

The end of the war was in sight. There would be fighting still, 
but there was war no longer. Whatever terms of peace might come, the 
Africanders would be British subjects. 

The Briton and the Boer had fought a good fight, and it was 
ended. The world must admire the Boers for their splendid resistance 



. 3 8o THE STORY OF SOUTH AFRICA. 

in a cause which had long been recognized as lost. To the victor be- 
longed the spoils, but from the unequal struggle the Africanders issued 
as much victors as the British, if bravery and dogged resistance count for 
anything. Kruger would be a central figure in history, his people a 
nation in spite of being merged into England. 

The story of South Africa has been told. From the story of its 
war of 1899 and 1900 must come admiration for both Briton and Boer 
•^-the one insistant and brave, the other obstinate and brave. Bravery 
owns South Africa; the twin republics there may be English territory, 
but in that territory beat the hearts of Boers who will ever feel that the 
land is theirs, though a mighty nation has wrested it from them. 



THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 920 546 8 





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